Jim Inhofe and David Walters debate in Tulsa

No mud here. That's what the candidates said Monday about their race for U-S Senate at a Tulsa debate. <br><br>According to them, this race is about the issues. News on Six anchor Scott Thompson

Monday, October 21st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

No mud here. That's what the candidates said Monday about their race for U-S Senate at a Tulsa debate.

According to them, this race is about the issues. News on Six anchor Scott Thompson says in politics a little mud may fly. But despite the ads and accusations, former governor David Walters and incumbent Senator Jim Inhofe say they're running a clean race.

Jim Inhofe: "And I think that so far it's not been a mudslinging race and I have no intention of making it one." David Walters: "He's an incumbent and I'm a challenger. So he's voting and I'm pointing out the difference in where we would vote."

In a debate sponsored by the Tulsa Kiwanis Club, both candidates insist this race is about the issues. Even the sometimes negative ads were whitewashed. Jim Inhofe: "I don't think that the things that he has on the air, they're not accurate in terms of my record, but they're not personal charges."

Walters says the candidates talk about the issues but the media only covers the negative. David Walters: "We need not only the help of the public we need the help of the media that when we say here's an issue thatâ€™s important and critical to our public. Here's what people, they donâ€™t talk about these past controversies around their dinner table they talk about the issues and that's what we need to focus on."

The candidates agree on several issues like 2nd amendment rights, and the President's current action in the war on terrorism. But prescription drugs was a bone of contention. And the backbiting resurfaced.

Walters called Inhofe's plan an illusion, and Inhofe responded by labeling Walter's plan a "Hillary Clinton"-type bureaucracy. Jim Inhofe: "I trust the individual more I think my opponent trusts big government more and I think I'm right." David Walters: "We have to bite the bullet and pass a real plan not some illusion."