Webb and Allen Hit the Issues

But after weeks of distractions, Allen tried to steer the debate to taxes. He spoke about the need to eliminate the estate tax, which he refers to as the "death tax."

Under President Bush's tax cuts, the estate tax is being phased out through 2010, but it will revert to its original rate in 2011 unless Congress votes to make the cuts permanent.

"I think we ought to give the death penalty to the death tax," Allen said.

Yesterday, as he's been doing for weeks in television ads, Allen accused Webb of wanting to raise the estate tax. Webb has said that he supports eliminating the tax on estates valued at less than $5 million and that Allen's assertions are not true.

Allen and Webb also condemned remarks by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). During a speech in California, Kerry told a group of college students, "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Kerry, who said he was trying to make a joke at Bush's expense, apologized yesterday.

"It is just deplorable for John Kerry to make those comments," Allen said.

Webb, a former Marine who has a son serving in Iraq, said: "John Kerry may have been trying to tell a joke. If so, he needs to work on his punch line."

Webb spoke to about three dozen people who packed a small Richmond restaurant. "It's not just Iraq," Wilder said, referring to Webb's early opposition to the war in Iraq. "It's the great division that's happening with the haves and the have-nots. These are the kinds of things that Jim Webb can change."

But even as both candidates tried to stay focused on issues yesterday, they traded charges over who was responsible for the negative tone of the campaign.

Allen reiterated that he holds Webb responsible for an incident in Charlottesville on Tuesday during which a liberal blogger says he was assaulted by GOP supporters. Three men wearing Allen stickers confronted W. Michael Stark and slammed him to the ground as he tried to ask whether Allen ever spat on his first wife.

Allen's former wife, Anne Waddell, issued a statement Tuesday calling Stark's question "a baseless, cheap shot."

Webb aides said Stark has no connection to the campaign. Webb contended that Allen, who has been trying to make an issue out of sexual references in Webb's novels, is the one running a nasty campaign.

"People are rejecting this kind of political campaigning," Webb said.