Primary warmup

In baseball parlance, it was the winter league Friday for Republican state senate candidates. Three hopefuls appeared at a Milford Borough Hall debate. Jim Haggerty, left, is Mayor of Kingston; David Madeira, center, is a chiropractor from Dallas, and Russell Bigus is a rural middle school principal. All three are from Luzerne County. Haggerty, who is also a lawyer, was the only one with experience in office and the only one to defend a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow eminent domain to benefit commercial projects. Madeira referred to himself as a Goldwater-Reagan Republican. He advocates elimination of the property tax, opposes gambling, favors medical savings accounts and tax deductible health insurance. Bigus sees himself as a liaison between the people and the state, an environmentalist whose real passion is hunting and being in the woods. He wants the state to cut local costs by bringing more training services to local venues. Front-runner Lisa Baker did not attend. Pike Commissioner Harry Forbes read part of her statement, before the two-minute time limit cut him short. (Photo by David Hulse)