Republican gubernatorial candidates Corinne Wood and Patrick O'Malley met for a debate Wednesday and came ready to do battle.
"Let me say this," O'Malley said. "You had your chance. It's my chance to respond."
And that was directed at a member of the audience.
Wood and O'Malley remained civil and respectful toward each other, but the hourlong debate sponsored by the City Club was a spirited round of political combat.
Both seemed most eager to attack Attorney General Jim Ryan, the GOP front-runner who chose not to participate in the event at a Near North Side restaurant.
"It's unfortunate that all of the gubernatorial candidates are not here today," Wood said. "You have to ask yourself: What do they have to hide?"
O'Malley, a state senator from Palos Park, said "how disappointed I am that the other candidate in this race who aspires to be governor of the state does not have the courage to enter this room at this time on this date to take the kinds of questions that the lieutenant governor and I have been willing to take."
It was one of the few areas of agreement.
Even on the issues of expanding O'Hare Airport and building a third airport in south suburban Peotone, positions both said they generally support, Wood and O'Malley managed to disagree.
"We should make sure our aviation needs in the region are addressed--and not just at O'Hare," O'Malley said. "Let me close my remarks by saying this: Peotone first."
"Let me begin my remarks by saying this: O'Hare expansion first," Wood countered.
When one questioner asked for a list of Gov. Ryan's positive accomplishments, O'Malley, a harsh critic of the governor, feigned speechlessness.
Wood, who was the governor's hand-picked running mate in 1998, countered that Ryan should be commended for earmarking 51 percent of all new revenue for education and for declaring a moratorium on the death penalty.
O'Malley went on to say he would lift the moratorium, calling it illegal.
"The moratorium on the death penalty is not something to be proud of," he said.
The biggest disagreement was on abortion.
Wood, who supports abortion rights, used the issue to differentiate herself sharply from O'Malley and the absent Jim Ryan, both of whom oppose abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
"And that position is extreme," Wood said. "One of my opponents has already launched misleading television attack ads to try to hide his position. Maybe that's why he's not here today."
O'Malley called his opposition to abortion a matter of human dignity.
He offered his most strident defense of his views when a questioner suggested his position was out of step with mainstream America and "the average Roman Catholic."
"I am a Roman Catholic, and the Roman Catholics overwhelmingly support my position of preserving and protecting innocent human life," O'Malley said. "You can shake your head all you want, but you are misleading in making your statements."
BIGGEST GAFFE:
Corinne Wood: "I've already outlined in my ethics paper on how we need to make sure that too few people have too much power."