Republican congressional hopefuls take on health care, Iraq in debate

Michael Moshe Starkman, a candidate in the 4th District, said the low turnout in a county with 120,000 registered Republicans showed a new direction was needed to get people enthused about the party.

‘‘We have three liberty-minded, Constitution-minded candidates for Congress,” he said of primary opponents Robert Broadus and Peter James, both of whom describe themselves as ‘‘Ron Paul Republicans.” ‘‘That’s a credit to the district.”

The 4th District candidates also appeared the most passionate about the issues among the 10 on the stage.

Broadus, who served as a lieutenant in the Navy for five years after graduating from the Naval Academy, said the U.S. should close down Guantanamo Bay and allow those held captive to receive trials.

James said the federal government should not give so much power to the banks to control the economic policies that keep the middle class down and the government and people in perpetual debt.

Starkman called for the nation to obey the Constitution and laws if it expects individuals to also obey the law.

In the 6th District, U.S. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, the only Republican incumbent in the three districts, said that after being first elected in 1992, the voters know where he stands on the issues and he has not changed his conservative views in his 15 years in office.

‘‘My platform has not changed one iota,” he said.

But his primary challenger Joseph Krysztoforski said Congress — both Democrats and Republicans — has been ‘‘derelict in its duty.”

‘‘Government should serve the people,” he said. ‘‘The people shouldn’t serve the government. We must secure our liberties. ... I’m not content with the status quo.”

In the crowded 8th District, candidates jockeyed to stake out a variety of conservative positions on the issues, but one candidate said the most important issue to consider is electability.

‘‘I’m the one best prepared to take our core Republican values into the enemy’s camp and win,” said Brian Mezger, one of five Republican candidates hoping to take on incumbent U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington. The Potomac attorney said he is pro-life and opposed to gay marriage.

But candidate Bruce Stern, a Gaithersburg attorney, said only a moderate on social issues and conservative on fiscal issues like himself has a chance of defeating Van Hollen.

‘‘We’ve run social conservatives in the last two elections and he’s beat them by 50 percentage points. ... When he faced a social moderate he won by 5 percentage points,” Stern said.

Dr. Steve Hudson, a surgeon who also has a law degree, said the video footage of the Iranian speedboats near the U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf shows there is still a risk of the country being attacked.

Meyer Marks said he decided to run because he had become ‘‘disillusioned” with Democrats and Republicans in Congress and that it was wrong that the U.S. spends so much on health care and receives so little in return. He blamed the influence of pharmaceutical lobbyists and that Congress needed better ethics enforcement.

Jay Roberts, a former chief technology officer for Gloto Corp., said the Republican Party needed to return to its core values of limited government and protection of the Constitution instead of engaging in ‘‘reckless” foreign adventures and spending.

‘‘My No. 1 priority is restoring fiscal responsibility,” he said.