U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and challenger Tiffany Smiley met for the second, and final, time on the debate stage Sunday night, clashing over the economy, health care, gun control and climate change as Smiley relentlessly attacked the incumbent as a "career politician" while Murray responded with policy achievements from a long career in office.
Smiley, a Republican, rarely passed up an opportunity to remind viewers how long Murray, who is seeking a sixth term, has been in the Senate.
"Sen. Murray's been there for 30 years," she said.
"Thirty years in the Senate and this is where we are."
"Sen. Murray's had 30 years."
"She's been in the Senate for 30 years."
Murray, a Democrat, responded in her closing statement by emphasizing policy differences: her support for gun control, reproductive rights and voting rights legislation.
"I always come home, I talk to people here and I take their values and their priorities back to Washington, D.C., to fight for you," she said.
On guns, Murray pointed to the legislation passed in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, modest new restrictions on guns that still are the most significant new federal changes in three decades. She said she supports a ban on assault weapons, a ban on "ghost guns" and tightening background checks.
Smiley said she would have voted for the post-Uvalde legislation, but declined to say if she supported other gun control measures.
The town hall-style debate was held at KIRO studios in Seattle, featured questions from the audience and was moderated by the station's Monique Ming Laven. It at times turned testy.
"Sen. Murray's not the mom in tennis shoes anymore," Smiley said, referencing Murray's longtime campaign slogan.
Murray, in response, leaned over and stared quizzically at the sneakers on her feet.
Smiley criticized Murray for her support of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will make the biggest investments in clean energy in the nation's history and will allow Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices for the first time, but does little in the short term to fight inflation.
Murray responded that she was focused on lowering costs for families and the legislation would also lower health care costs.
The new law came up again in a discussion on climate change and forest fires, with Murray citing it as a point of pride.
"I know my opponent doesn't believe the same as I do here," she said. "Climate change is real, it's impacting our economy, it's impacting our weather, it's impacting our health, it's impacting everyone of us."
At the last debate, Smiley declined to say whether humans had an impact on the climate. On Sunday night, she affirmed that they did. But she framed climate change as a local problem, mocking the federal legislation that also increased IRS funding to improve tax collection.
"Last time I checked, 87,000 IRS agents do not change the weather," she said. "We need to work locally with our people here in Washington state to manage our forests."
The faceoff comes as polls show a tightening race and as voting is already well underway.
Murray's lead in the polling average, as compiled by FiveThirtyEight, has fallen to about 7 points, from 10 points about a month ago. Two recent Republican-funded polls have shown the race within the margin of error.
Murray has spent more than $20 million promoting her support of reproductive rights, health care affordability and the threats she says a Republican majority would pose to democracy. Smiley has spent more than $14 million, focused on voters' fear of high crime rates and anger over rising inflation.
And outside money is beginning to show up on the airwaves and in mailings to voters.
Two super PACs, one Democratic and one Republican, have each spent about $5 million on the race, most of it in the last month. On the Republican side, Evergreen Principles PAC, a group formed this summer for the sole purpose of supporting Smiley, reported raising $2 million in the first few weeks of October. Most of that total, $1.25 million, came from the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Murray has been boosted by Women Vote, a super PAC from EMILY's List, a national group that supports Democratic women, and counts former New York mayor and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg as among its biggest donors.
Meanwhile, more than 650,000 Washington residents have already cast their ballots, according to the secretary of state's office. That's just under 14% of all registered voters. Ballot returns are running behind 2018's pace, when more than 16% of voters had cast ballots at this point in the election.
As they have throughout the campaign, the candidates clashed on abortion, with Murray promising to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade if Democrats expand their majorities, and Smiley saying she is "pro-life" but would vote against a federal abortion ban and thinks the issue should be decided at the state level.
Murray said she supported President Joe Biden's move to forgive up to $20,000 of student debt for those making less than $125,000. She said she'd also like to make community college free and use federal money to incentivize states to boost higher education funding.
Smiley opposes the student debt relief plan, calling it unfair to ask people to pay for someone else's college.
"What I would like to see is these kids also have an opportunity to serve our country in repayment for the loans they are getting," she said.
