Democratic challenger Maryanne Cole faced off against Republican incumbent Martin Causer Tuesday night in an at-times heated debate organized by The Era.

Held at the University Room at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, the event attracted about 90 people to hear what the candidates for the 67th District of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives had to say.

Jim Eckstrom, executive editor of The Era and Bradford Publishing Co., moderated, while Bradford High School senior McKenna Shipman was time keeper.

Questions ranged from pension reform to a natural gas severance tax, property tax to public school funding, and legalization of marijuana to abortion rights.

Cole began by saying, “I’m a high school teacher and I’m not a politician.” She said the area has experienced a “steady state of economic decline” with young people being forced to leave to find jobs to pay off their student loans.

“It’s getting to the point where you have to wonder how long these small, rural towns will exist,” she said. “I promise you I would, at the very least, fight for the survival of this wonderful part of Pennsylvania.”

Causer said, “I look back and realize everything I have done in my adult life has revolved around public service. My opponent likes to call me a career politician, but I call it career leadership and knowing how to get things done.”

Regarding the potential of decriminalizing marijuana, Cole was in favor, while Causer was not.

“I think it should be legal across the board,” she said, her comments met with applause by her supporters. “Colorado returned $66 million to taxpayers (legalized marijuana) earned so much money.”

She said projected revenue in the first year would be half a billion dollars.

“We could put all that money toward public education,” she said.

Causer, on the other hand, was against it.

“I don’t think we should be making decisions like that just based off of how much money we could be bringing in,” he said. He spoke of the dangers of people driving under the influence of marijuana, and said incidents would increase if the drug were legal.

The issues of severance tax on natural gas and alternative energy were discussed as well.

“Quite honestly, we are doing better as a state with the (impact fee) rather than a severance (tax),” Causer said. Currently, the funds raised with the impact fee are split, 60 percent to the area where the drilling takes place, and 40 percent to the state.

“Make no mistake, if we get a severance tax, 60 percent will not be coming to the county,” Causer said.

Cole replied, “I understand how important (drilling) is to our economy and I wouldn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.”

She talked about the finite nature of oil, and said Pennsylvania needs to prepare for a renewable energy source.

Causer added that he supports all forms of energy.

School funding is where the candidates started to clash.

Cole mentioned Gov. Tom Wolf’s accomplishments as “the public schools governor,” and said comments about the new fair funding formula he had made were “taken out of context” and would not take money away from rural schools.

Causer disagreed. “As I said before, there are folks in Harrisburg that believe our schools are overfunded.”

He said should Wolf’s formula be enacted, “the impact would be that most of the school districts in McKean County would close.”

Cole disagreed, saying, “Gov. Wolf has been an advocate of public education all along.”

The two clashed on questions over abortion as well, with Causer saying he is “staunchly pro-life” and Cole saying, “The government doesn’t have any right to tell me what to do with my body.”

Eckstrom asked about potential legislation that would open primary elections to independent voters in Pennsylvania.

Causer said he supported it, but with a caveat.

“I am willing to support that provided it is a level playing field,” he said.

“Under the legislation that is written right now, an independent can walk into the polls right now and decide to vote Democrat or Republican,” Causer explained. However, Republican or Democratic voters would have to vote along party lines.

“If it’s going to be open, it’s got to be truly open,” he said.

Cole said, “In my world, there would not be political parties. People could vote for whoever they wanted.”

When Eckstrom asked about reducing the size of the General Assembly, Cole brought up the redistricting process and allegations of Republican gerrymandering.

“You proposed to impeach the judges who ordered that,” Cole said, looking at Causer. “You can’t impeach a judge because you don’t agree with them.”

Causer said Cole was confusing the issues from the original question, but added that in his opinion, the judges who ruled on congressional redistricting earlier this year had broken the law and should be impeached.

“In a time when we have governments overreaching their authority, it’s time to fight back,” he said.

Cole commented that she wouldn’t support impeaching a judge, to which Causer replied, “You’ll never have the opportunity.”

After a question about pension reform and the state’s public employee pension deficit nearing $70 billion, Cole said she would “rely on the experts” because she didn’t know a lot about it. Causer said measures that have already been taken at the state level have “stopped the bleeding” and that he felt more should be done.

The two candidates essentially agreed that the state’s gun laws are adequate and they both said they would support allowing Sunday hunting for all game species.

In their closing remarks, each asked for the audience’s vote.

“I have worked hard every single day to represent you in Harrisburg,” Causer said. “My opponent likes to claim that it’s all gloom-and-doom, but we have made progress over my 16 years. I fight every single day for rural schools in our area. I pledge to you that I will continue fighting for you every single day.”

Cole, however, disagreed. “It’s not so much what he’s done in the last 16 years. It’s what he hasn’t done. This district is taken for granted in Harrisburg.

“It would be nice if we could rely on Mr. Causer to give us real hope instead of empty promises … it’s time for change,” she said. “Rather than be a puppet of a political party I hope we can end the divide that exists between us.”

The event was just under 90 minutes in length. The chairs of both the county’s Republicans and Democrats, Ken Kane and Marty Wilder, respectively, were present at the debate as well.