SEATTLE - Sen. Maria Cantwell and her Republican challenger, Mike McGavick, squared off Tuesday afternoon in Seattle in their final televised debate before absentee ballots go out this weekend and voting can begin.

Libertarian candidate Bruce Guthrie also participated, and staked out left-of-center positions that could erode some of Cantwell's base. He strenuously opposed the war in Iraq, and supported gay marriage and decriminalization of marijuana.

The topics, which ranged from the Iraq war to Social Security, abortion rights and proposed oil drilling in Alaska didn't spark any fireworks. That occurred outside, when Green Party candidate Aaron Dixon was arrested after he tried to get into the KING building. 

Despite his protests, Dixon had been invited to debate, provided he could show public support by past election results, polling or fundraising. He was unable to do so.

Cantwell, who leads in the polls by about 10 percentage points, took an occasional poke at the Republicans who run Washington, D.C. She also took a dig at McGavick for firing hundreds of workers when he took over the top post at Seattle-based Safeco Corp., noting that he got a big "golden parachute" when he left to run for office.

McGavick was more aggressive, accusing Cantwell of being a big spender, too ready to suddenly withdraw troops from Iraq and focused too much on "peripheral issues ... instead of the big issues that keep us up at night."

Guthrie got a few chuckles from the audience when he said "I'm the poorest millionaire up here."

Cantwell and McGavick got wealthy in the private sector. Guthrie cashed in all his assets so he could loan his campaign $1.2 million, the bare minimum required by debate organizers to show at least modest support.

McGavick accused Cantwell of being a big spender, too ready to suddenly withdraw troops from Iraq and focused too much on "peripheral issues ... instead of the big issues that keep us up at night."

KING

Democrat Maria Cantwell, Libertarian Bruce Guthrie and Republican Mike McGavick meet in a debate at KING 5.

The area in which Cantwell and McGavick differed the most was drilling for oil in Alaska

"Drilling in the Artic Wildlife Refuge ten years will have negligible maybe a penny or so on a cent of gas," said Cantwell.

"Every two-and-a-half or three-bucks a gallon that we send to someone in the Middle East for our gas is going to come back to us, some portion in the form of terrorism here at home," countered McGavick.

Guthrie suggested it shouldn't be up to the government to decide whether to drill.

"The Sierra Club or the Nature Conservancy, I believe we should give management control of the Artic National Wildlife Reserve to one of those organizations," he said.

McGavick and Cantwell disagreed on Iraq, Social Security, abortion, gay marriage, deficit reduction and immigration.