Monday night’s debate between U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, and GOP primary challenger Bentley Rayburn was as close to a bar fight as political debates get.

The opponents in the bid for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District attacked and counter-attacked every chance they got, straight from the get-go. Rayburn, a retired Air Force major general who has run twice before against Lamborn, began his opening remarks by asking Lamborn to disavow a political mailer that claimed Rayburn didn’t support military troops.

“We have too many career politicians who become entrenched and forget that they are there to do the people’s business,” Rayburn said, holding up a copy of the mailer. “Career politicians who would produce absolute junk like this, full of lies and deception.”

“The Lamborn campaign accuses me of not being pro-life. They accuse me of not supporting Second Amendment rights. And most disturbing, they make it clear that I won’t fight for my troops,” Rayburn said. “Coming from a person who’s never served a day in uniform, I find that very offensive.”

Lamborn, by contrast, started the evening by saying he was honored to serve as the representative from the 5th Congressional District, but added, “I didn’t start this fight, but I’m certainly going to end it.”

“I’m tired of people who think they have to be some sort of big-shot in Congress before they can get anything done,” Lamborn said, a not-so-subtle dig at Rayburn’s three campaigns for the House of Representatives.

Though the pair agreed repeatedly on several fundamental issues, such as funding the military, repealing Obamacare, and fighting to protect the unborn, most of the debate was a regular catfight.

Rayburn tried to paint Lamborn as an aloof congressman who doesn’t care or understand about the people in the 5th Congressional District, and he made more than one attempt to connect Lamborn to soon-to-be former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who recently lost his seat to a Tea Party insurgent candidate in Virginia.

But Lamborn gave as good as he got, and said that not only does Rayburn not understand how the federal budget works, but also asserted the general is “tainted” by a plagiarism accusation that has dogged Rayburn for years. (Rayburn failed to cite former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton when he gave a speech in 2009. He has apologized numerous times for not citing Bolton, and did so again on Monday.)

“If leadership means having followers, I’ve got it, and unfortunately, my opponent does not,” Lamborn said to cheers.

Rayburn threw a jab straight back, and said Lamborn has “no real-world experience outside of being a career politician. That’s all he’s done.”

The general, who received plenty of his own applause in the nearly full house at Centennial Hall, also happily noted that he’s been endorsed by one of the same groups that backed the Tea Party candidate who upset Cantor – the Gun Owners of America.

Lamborn was quick to distance himself from Cantor, who is stepping down as House majority leader effective July 31. Lamborn said Cantor’s main problem was he was identified by his core constituency as being soft on immigration.

“Mr. Cantor was associated with amnesty and illegal aliens,” Lamborn said. “This is one of those issues I’m on record. My opponent has talked a lot, but has no record.”

“I would put my record against anyone else in Congress. I’m one of the most conservative members there is,” Lamborn bragged.

Rayburn countered that his 31 years of experience in the military more than make him qualified for public office. He asserted that Lamborn, as a member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has missed dozens of hearings on the VA, and also has done a poor job on protecting local military interests.

“Who is providing any oversight?” Rayburn asked. “You don’t just go to a place and say, ‘Hey, how’s it going?'”

Democrat Irv Halter, who in November will face the winner of the June 24 GOP primary between Lamborn and Rayburn, said in a statement that the debate was a perfect example of why many voters are “turned off” by GOP politics.

“Both Doug Lamborn and Bentley Rayburn spent much of the night squabbling about which of them is the most out of the mainstream,” said Halter, who, like Rayburn, is a retired Air Force major general. “It’s exactly the sort of extreme partisanship that is tearing this country apart.”

Incumbent Doug Lamborn speaks to Major General Bentley Rayburn during the GOP congressional debate at Centennial Hall Monday, June 16, 2014. Approximately 300 people filled the auditorium’s seats. Photo by Julia Moss, The Gazette

JULIA MOSS, THE GAZETTE