District 1 congressional candidates hold debate

Republican 1st District Congressman John Sullivan and his opponent Doug Dodd tackled a variety of issues in a debate in Tulsa Monday. <br><br>The two are no strangers to the race for Congress or to each

Monday, October 14th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Republican 1st District Congressman John Sullivan and his opponent Doug Dodd tackled a variety of issues in a debate in Tulsa Monday.

The two are no strangers to the race for Congress or to each other. News on Six anchor Terry Hood has this update on Election 2002.

Same faces, but a different race. Congressman John Sullivan and Tulsa lawyer Doug Dodd met in a special election last January in a race to fill Steve Largent's abandoned seat. Now the two are running against each other again. This time around Dodd's zeroing in on Sullivan's record so far in Congress. Dodd says Sullivan was here in Oklahoma instead of in Washington voting on key issues.

Sullivan says he's trying to clean up Oklahoma's water. John Sullivan: "I've worked with the water quality addressing a huge concern 500,000 people's drinking water is affected and I want to try to make sure that we get something done. I've taken historic steps." Sullivan also pointed out his other accomplishments in his eight months in office. â€œAlso been on the prescription drug action team and I helped pass a prescription drug bill for seniors to give them coverage now they need it desperately seniors should have to pick between medicine and food.â€

Both candidates seem to support congress' current action when it comes to the war in Iraq. But the two differ on how to jumpstart our economy. Sullivan: I'm for tax relief my opponent wants to have tax increases I think its important to get money out of Washington and into the people's pockets so they can keep more of what they earn and small businessman gets a break.

Dodd wants to grow the economy by growing what he calls one of Tulsaâ€™s greatest assets, the Port of Catoosa. Doug Dodd: "a very little money in the grand scheme of things would widen the channel of the verdigris river and deepen to multiply several times the amount of barge traffic."