Tom Allen and Tom Ledue on six issues. (All quotes are taken from the candidates’ Web sites, public statements or direct interviews.)

Iraq polic y

Allen: “I was against this war from the beginning, and I believe we must set a safe and responsible deadline for withdrawal of our troops.”

Ledue: “We need to allow the Iraqis themselves to be real clear on self-determination and what they want, not what we want for them. We need to transition our own role from one that is primarily military to one that’s primarily diplomatic.”

Economy

Allen: “(Bush’s economic policies) have created a huge national debt. They gave the wealthiest people of this country enormous tax breaks that left the middle class behind. They’ve crippled our ability to grow this economy at a grassroots level.”

Ledue: “We need to reassess where our investments should go. I believe they have to go into supporting the foundations of our people – in health care, education, environmental security and in our towns in our local economy.”

Health care

Allen: “People in small businesses, but even in big businesses, are paying so much today for their health insurance that they are struggling to compete with people in businesses in other countries. That has to change.”

Ledue: “Our country is never going to be reflective of its greatness because one-sixth of us are completely vulnerable every single day and a whole lot of others are less cared for than they need to be.”

Education

Allen: “A college education is the foundation of economic mobility in America. We’re frequently reminded that our state’s future will be more and more about the skills and creativity of our citizens.”

Ledue: “We need to recognize that the best business investment we can make in our country is education. … Right now, not everyone has equitable access to the educational system, which, beyond not being consistent with our ideals, is also bad business.”

Energy

Allen: “Our government has sat on the sidelines for too long and we need to change how we are doing business when dealing with energy prices.”

Ledue: “The great opportunity that we face within our current energy crisis is that necessity is the mother of invention. We have tremendous opportunities in this state and across the nation with green energy. We simply need to fund them.”

Environment

Allen: “Since I entered Congress in 1997, reducing poisonous mercury emissions from utilities and industry has been one of my top environmental priorities.”

Ledue: “The status quo is heading us in a direction where we are starting to do irreparable harm in the environment and we’ve got a very limited time to lower our carbon emissions. We need to commit to lower carbon emissions by 10 percent in three years, on track for 80 percent by 2050.”