Discussion over budget plans was the focus of the first gubernatorial debate between Gov. Scott McCallum and state Attorney General Jim Doyle.
However, the Republican and Democratic candidates, respectively, were able to get in a few political shots during the hour-long state-wide televised debate hosted by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association.
Doyle criticized McCallum for attempting to cut shared revenue in his first Budget Reform proposal, something Doyle said was a scare tactic.
\Your proposal really scared people,"" Doyle said. ""Shared revenue is at the heart of what we do in Wisconsin.""
McCallum later asked Doyle to pull an ad run by the Wisconsin Education Association Council which claims McCallum sold the state's $6 billion tobacco settlement for 30 cents on the dollar. McCallum said the ad was untrue and in fact the state received 70 cents on the dollar.
Protesters in support of Libertarian Ed Thompson and Green Party Candidate Jim Young gathered outside the studio to voice their complaints that neither were included in the debate.
Earlier in the day the state's Ethics Board rejected Thompson's complaint that the exclusion of the third party candidates in the debate was equivalent to an illegal campaign contribution by the WBA.
