Debate II Roberts Attacks, Orman Tries to Deflect, New Polls Have Roberts Leading

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, went on the offensive Wednesday during the second debate against Independent candidate Greg Orman.
The debate between the two attracted nation attention because control of the US Senate may be determined by who wins the Kansas seat, which Roberts has held for three terms, since 1996.
Just hours after the debate, a CNN poll of likely voters has Roberts with a 49-48% lead.
Another new poll, from Fox News, also showed Roberts with a 44-39% lead for Roberts.
Roberts repeatedly accused Orman of not being a true Independent candidate.
He pointed out that Orman briefly ran as a 2008 Democratic candidate for the Roberts Senate seat. He also noted that Orman has contributed to Democrats like President Obama, Senate Leader Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton and Kansas Democrats.
“It proves beyond doubt he is a liberal Democrat by word, deed and campaign donation,’ Roberts said.
Orman has also donated money to Republicans. But many of his donations to the GOP are not as recent as his democratic contributions.
Orman, did try to counter Roberts’ claim.
“I actually gave money to Scott Brown in Massachusetts in 2010 precisely because he was the vote that was supposed to prevent the affordable care act from becoming law,” Orman said.
Roberts also accused Orman of supporting Obamacare.
Orman denies that. .He has characterized the Affordable Health Care Act, often called “Obamacare”, as an extension of a broken health care system.
Roberts cited the President and Senator Reid in his charge.
“All said it would be the first step toward national health insurance We don’t want or need national health insurance. We need a system that is market driven,” he said.
Orman responded.
“I think any senator who stand up here and tells you he’s going to repeal the Affordable Care Act, is ignoring the reality that President Obama will simply veto the bill.”
Roberts repeatedly tried to tie Orman to the Democrats. He brought up President Obama’s name or Democratic Senate Leader Reid’s name more than 20 times during the 70 minute debate.
Roberts said the way to end Washington gridlock is the establish a GOP majority in the Senate.
The Republicans need to pick up 6 of the available seats in the mid-term election to accomplish that, providing they hold on the Kansas seat they’ve held since FDR was President.
Roberts said Orman won’t say which party he would side with if elected.
He ridiculed his stance as an Independent candidate.
“Who will he vote for. Or will he/or just hold up a little sign and say, ‘I’m present. I’m here’?
Orman he would try to join the caucus of the party that holds the majority. If he would happen to be the tie breaking vote to determine the majority, Orman said he would not vote for either Democratic leader Reid or Republican Senate Mitch McConnell.
“I think the people in the women’s caucus in the senate Lisa Murkowski, Heidi Heitkamp, have done great jobs of demonstrating a willingness to work in a bi-partisan way. And that’s who we would work with,” he said.
Murkowski is a Republican from Alaska. Heidtkamp is a Democrat from North Dakota.
Debate was sponsored by the Chambers of Commerce of Johnson County and the Johnson county Public policy Council.
It was not as raucous as the first debate at the Kansas state fair in early August.
At that debate, on an open-air stage, the crowd cheered and booed the candidates repeatedly. It had the atmosphere of a ballgame.
The two have a final debate set for later in the month in Wichita.