Both candidates for Michigan's U.S Senate seat say the nation hasn't done enough to shore up homeland security.
 
But Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow and Republican challenger Mike Bouchard differ on what should be done to better defend the U.S. against terrorism and respond to natural disasters.

Bouchard is using his current role as Oakland County sheriff and his two decades of law enforcement experience as key selling points on why he should be sent to Washington.

"I see what's coming across our borders every day, and I see the lack of understanding on behalf of her (Stabenow) and other people in Washington," Bouchard says. "They may very well be well-intentioned. But if you don't deal with an issue in my world, the public safety world, people die."

Stabenow counters that Bouchard doesn't have the market cornered when it comes to law-and-order. She has been recognized by Michigan police and fire associations for securing millions of dollars in homeland security grants for emergency responders.

She also has lobbied - so far unsuccessfully - for a $5 billion federal investment in better communications equipment so different agencies can talk with each other during disasters.

"Being a U.S. senator is different from being a sheriff," Stabenow says. "There's a very important policy and resource role" a senator must play.

Stabenow, a former state legislator and congresswoman first elected to the Senate in 2000, leads Bouchard in recent polls and has millions more dollars in campaign funds.

But Republicans say Stabenow has been ineffective and could be vulnerable once Michigan voters get to know more about Bouchard, who is expected to get help from President Bush at an upcoming fundraising event.

Both candidates already have begun running ads. Although Bouchard's ad focuses on what he sees as wasteful federal spending and Stabenow's ad focuses on trade laws, health care and education, terrorism and homeland security already are shaping up as a hot topic in the campaign.

Stabenow says she supported efforts to triple the number of border patrol agents along the 4,000-mile U.S.-Canadian border from 340 in 2001 to 980 this year. She says more should be done to screen people and vehicles crossing the border and supports adding staff and more technology.

The Lansing Democrat pushed for more money to inspect Canadian garbage trucks that enter Michigan, saying the trucks are a homeland security threat and should be charged higher fees to cover the costs of inspecting them at the border.

She voted in favor of allowing National Guard units to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border, as long as the move has support from federal and state authorities. She also voted to build a fence at parts of the southern border and eventually voted in favor of $2 billion to help fund the project.

Bouchard criticized her for voting against an earlier funding measure, but the Stabenow campaign said she was opposed to that particular measure because it also would have cut funding for some other homeland security efforts.

Bouchard says Stabenow and others in Washington have been too political and slow to react to border security issues. As evidence that more needs to be done, he points to last year's example where investigators with enough radioactive material to make two "dirty bombs" successfully entered the United States during a government test of security standards.

Bouchard says deploying National Guard troops along the southern border is a temporary solution to a long-term problem and that more must be done to build physical barriers, increase border staffing and add technology such as infrared cameras and cargo containment scanners.

He argues that overall U.S. homeland security policies have been too reactive. He would put more emphasis on intelligence agencies, patrols in key locations and other techniques aimed at preventing incidents.

Bouchard says executive orders issued by former Democratic President Clinton weakened the U.S. intelligence system and that the network has not yet rebounded to where its needs to be under President Bush.

Bouchard bristles at Democratic suggestions that he would blindly follow the Republican Party line, saying he brings a practitioner's perspective to public safety that transcends politics.

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