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TOM SCHECK: The spirited and freewheeling debate focused on everything from health care, which the candidates say every American should have, to which DFL candidate they support for Governor. Mike Erlandson and Keith Ellison say Mike Hatch, Paul Ostrow and Ember Reichgott Junge wouldn't say. Ellison and Erlandson both say they support single payer, government funded health care. Paul Ostrow says he wants Medicare available to every American, but thinks there should be a place for private health insurance. Ember Reichgott Junge, a former state Senator, says those types of plans will never pass Congress. She says it's better to require every state to create a universal health care model by 2018.

EMBER REICHGOTT JUNGE: The federal government has hand tied by the special interests and the drug companies, and they're never going to get it done. You got to go to the United States. Some of the states are already taking the lead on that. And that's why I think it's important. Now, where do you get the funding, Mike? You get the funding from those tax breaks that go to the very wealthy.

TOM SCHECK: But Mike Erlandson, a former DFL party chair, says reversing a portion of the Bush tax cuts isn't enough to pay for Reichgott Junge idea. He says members of Congress need to pass some sort of new tax increase if they want to provide health insurance to everyone.

MIKE ERLANDSON: We spend at minimum $1.4 trillion annually on health care. It's enough money in our country to insure the 47 million Americans that don't have it, and everybody that does. And we do need to have a card in everybody's pocket, but we're going to have to have a tax to pay for this, either a payroll tax or some sort of a value added tax.

TOM SCHECK: On the war in Iraq, Reichgott Junge says she wants all US troops home in 12 months. Erlandson is calling for an unspecified deadline for a troop withdrawal. Ostrow, a Minneapolis City Council member, says he doesn't support a time certain deadline but wants the US to start withdrawing some troops. That touched off an exchange between Ostrow and Keith Ellison, who has called for an immediate pullout of all US troops.

KEITH ELLISON: And now that folks know that the American people know that this war is terrible, now we got-- I got company. And I'm glad you guys now agree with me. But the fact is, I've always been bringing the troops home now.

PAUL OSTOW: But the key is we need an exit strategy. And the exit strategy relates to what Senator Biden has talked about. We don't have enough time to go there, but let's have a real exit strategy in Iraq that does not result in chaos.

KEITH ELLISON: We got chaos now, Paul. What do you call we got now?

TOM SCHECK: All four candidates say they support Israel's decision to defend itself against the recent Hezbollah rocket attacks, but they differ on the best path to peace in the region. Ellison says the US State Department needs to start talking to all of the parties, including Iran, which does not have diplomatic relations with the US. Reichgott Junge says there won't be peace in the region until Hezbollah is fully disarmed.

EMBER REICHGOTT JUNGE: We all want peace in the Middle East, but the prerequisite to peace has got to be that we don't have an organization that is ready with all of this ammunition to kill, and that's what we have with Hezbollah.

TOM SCHECK: A spike in crime in Minneapolis, especially on the city's North side, has every candidate also talking public safety. They all support plans directing federal funds to cities so they can hire more police officers. They also praised Mayor RT Rybak for putting 43 more police officers in his budget proposal. Erlandson asked Ellison if he supported the community's negative reaction to Rybak's proposal earlier this month. Ellison represents North Minneapolis in the legislature and has worked to create a civilian review board to oversee police brutality complaints.

MIKE ERLANDSON: Do you think it was fair that the community up there basically booed the mayor out of the room, in this case, when he was trying to put more police on the street? He's trying to deal with the gang violence in North Minneapolis, and a group of leaders wouldn't even allow him to speak.

KEITH ELLISON: Well, let me-- Mike, let me tell you this. The mayor is a supporter of mine. I'm a supporter of his. So is Dawn Samuels, by the way. I've stood at vigils many times with him, and as a matter of fact, been to many funerals with the mayor and him. So I'm not talking about something theoretical. I'm talking about what I know.

MIKE ERLANDSON: Neither am though. It's not theoretical--

KEITH ELLISON: But I have seen you there, so I know what I'm talking about from a first-hand experience.

TOM SCHECK: There will be several more debates before the September 12 primary. Greg Iverson, Andrew Vincent Favorite, and Patrick Wyles are also running as DFLers. Whichever DFLer wins the primary will face Republican Alan Fine, Independence Party member Tammy Lee and Green Party candidate Jay Pond in the November election. Reporting from the Capitol, I'm Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio news.