The question of when to cut taxes pointed up the sharp division on September 28 between the two contenders to replace Ann Kirkpatrick in Congress.

During a televised debate, Democrat Tom O’Halleran said one of his priorities is “living within our means.” But the former Republican state legislator said it can’t all come down to that.

“Investing in our future is a priority for me,” he told host Ted Simons of KAET-TV, the Phoenix PBS affiliate. “I’m not going to just haphazardly cut across the board when we have education issues to deal with, addressing our infrastructure needs, addressing the security of our nation.”

That drew criticism from Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu who is the Republican nominee.

“When you hear these key words as ‘investing,’ that’s code for more of the same,” he said. “More of the same is not going to fix our country,” with a $20 trillion national deficit.

Babeu said the key is growing jobs in this country.

“How we do that is we cut taxes,” he said, including collapsing individual income tax brackets and cutting corporate taxes. And Babeu dismissed arguments that lower taxes will mean less money for government.

“If you believe in that concept, I’m not the guy to vote for,” he said.

O’Halleran sniffed at the comment.

“Paul hasn’t cut taxes in his career,” he said. “I have.”

Babeu countered that there’s something else he did not do: switch parties.

O’Halleran was a Republican for the eight years he represented much of the same area in northern Arizona that is part of the sprawling Congressional District 1. He was ousted when Steve Pierce defeated him in the 2008 Republican primary for state Senate.

Two years ago he registered as an independent in an unsuccessful bid to regain his state Senate seat. He now is a Democrat.

O’Halleran brushed aside a question from Simons that his shifting political labels show the lack of commitment to any set of ideals.

“It’s the same ideals I worked on before,” he said. And O’Halleran said he consistently represented what he said was the will of the residents of his district even if it meant disagreeing with the Republican Party or legislative GOP leadership.

In 2004 House Speaker Jake Flake stripped O’Halleran of his chairmanship of the Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture because he had worked the prior year to get more money for Child Protective Services, money the GOP leaders did not want.

“So the idea that I’m not going to fight for the citizens of Congressional District 1 is just ridiculous,” he said.