Bill O'Neill, a former judge turned pediatric emergency nurse, casts himself as a populist who wants to shake up congress, cut earmarks and throw out lobbyists.
Steven LaTourette stresses the value of his experience during more than a decade in office, and his willingness to reach across the aisle when necessary.
The candidates were interviewed separately - each for about 25 minutes - and, predictably, they disagreed on pretty much everything. The strongest criticism came from O'Neill, who charged that LaTourette's favor could be bought.
O'NEILL: Steven LaTourette has received over $1 million dollars from the banking and insurance industries. He votes their way.
LaTourette pointed out that O'Neill took his share of campaign money during the decade he spent as an appeals court judge and accused O'Neill of trying to have it both ways.
LATOURETTE: Either Bill O'Neill as a judge, was able to take campaign contributions, sit here and decide cases, in their favor, by the way, , but he did it impartially on the facts because he's a good jurist. And I cast my vote based on what I think is best for my constituents. Or, I reward big oil because they have made $55,000 in campaign contributions over 14 years. And he rewarded litigants who came before him.
In the largely rural fourteenth district, agriculture is a major employer and immigration a major issue. Perhaps referencing last year's crackdown in Painesville on undocumented workers, a listener asked that both candidates spell out their plans for immigration.
Here's O'Neill.
O'NEILL: If there are 12 million people in this country, they're working somewhere. And I think we'll know the federal government is serious about immigration reform when they start arresting the employers themselves because those are the people that are cheating all of us.
And, O'Neill said, they should go to jail. LaTourette wasn't inclined to blame businesses for illegal workers. He said the, quote, "guys and gals" who are business owners in the 14th aren't document experts who are breaking the law intentionally.
Both men chided each other, O'Neill laid the blame for the sub-prime crisis at the feet of LaTourette - who sits on the finance committee - and other Republicans who supported deregulating the banking industry.
O'NEILL: Billions were made fraudulently and Congress permitted that to happen.
LaTourette countered that the deregulation law was passed with bipartisan support and made Bank America's recent bailout of Merrill Lynch possible. And, he said, both President Bush and President Clinton before him ignored warnings of trouble with lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The candidates also differ on energy policy. O'Neill called for alternative energy sources at the expense of drilling. LaTourette dismissed that idea as naive.
LATOURETTE: Sadly, it's what the Democrats have advocated. To buy a small car and wait for the wind to blow.
Ultimately, it will be up to voters to weigh the worth of two candidates with starkly different versions of what's needed in the 14th district, and settle an old political question: what's best -- a new face or a veteran?
Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3.