2010 IN Senate Debates: on Principles & Values

Daniel Coats: YouTube video: "Don't tell Hoosiers I'm a Tar Heel"

"I never left Indiana," Ellsworth, a former county sheriff from Evansville, said in contrast. The critique irritated Coats, who had brushed off Ellsworth's criticisms for most of the evening but now stood on stage shaking his head. "You can shake your head all day long," Ellsworth said. "You said it."

"Brad," Coats said, sounding exasperated, "it was a second home."

Daniel Coats: There's a lot of enthusiasm for change in Washington

Coats said voters are unhappy with federal government, and he accuses Ellsworth of being lockstep with his party leaders. "Clearly, a lot of Hoosiers are not happy with what's come out of Washington these last two years. 90% of what's come out has been supported by my opponent," Coats said. "There's a lot of enthusiasm for change in Washington."

Ellsworth said Coats' claim that he has voted in line with Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 90% of the time is misleading He said those votes could include anything from naming a post office to honoring a sports team. "I have one of the most independent voting records in Congress, and I had a more conservative voting record than four Republicans," Ellsworth said.

Daniel Coats: Accused of lobbying for whatever issue paid the most money

Coats battled back, saying that it was his law firm--not him personally--who represented clients on those issues. He pointed instead at Ellsworth, saying that the Democrat's votes for the bailout, health care law and stimulus bill put the country in almost insurmountable debt. "I can understand that someone who went to Washington talking like a conservative here at home--but followed the agenda of Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama nearly 90% of the time--would not want to come home and talk about that," Coats said.

Daniel Coats: Accepted lobbying job after adjournment but still in Senate

Coats appeared to claim he accepted the lobbying job only after leaving office. "I said, 'Under the laws, I'm not able to negotiate anything.' In fact, I took a month off after I left because I didn't even want t think about what was next," Coats said.

What's clear is that on Oct. 17, 1998, press reported that the firm was "quite intrigued by Coats." Coats' Senate office announced that the deal was done on Dec. 3. On Jan. 3, Coats' Senate term ended. In Feb. 1999, Coats began working for the firm, earning a salary over $400,000.

Coats' campaign said the former senator simply misspoke. By "after I left," the campaign says he meant after Oct. 21, when the Senate adjourned and Coats was through casting votes.

Brad Ellsworth: Coats negotiated lobbying job while still a Senator

Coats went on to say, "I said, 'Under the laws, I'm not able to negotiate anything." But Coats was still in the Senate when his office announced in Dec. 1998 that he planned on joining the firm.

[A Democratic spokesman] called Coats' assertion a "bald-faced lie." The spokesman stopped short of saying Coats violated any ethics rules. He said the "laws" Coats alluded to in his debate response were not in place when Coats was in the Senate. Coats may not have broken any rules, the spokesman said, but did lie "because he knows that his position as a lobbyist and the fact that he took advantage of the revolving door in Washington is a vulnerability to his campaign."