The differences between candidates for the U.S. House 9th District seat were more obvious in personality than political stances Thursday night at a forum hosted by the Hall County Republican Party.

Martha Zoller, a former radio host, touted her tea party appeal and “firebrand” conservatism while railing against sending to Washington state legislators who “think it’s their turn.”

Doug Collins, who represented the 27th District in the state House since 2006, emphasized his record and how experience would benefit him in Congress.

Roger Fitzpatrick, a retired principal from White County, said to laughs from the packed room at the Gainesville Civic Center: “I feel so left out sometimes.” He also defined himself as one focused on limiting the federal government to only the powers given it in the Constitution, calling for the elimination of many departments at the federal level, including the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education. He said the issues addressed by those bodies would be better dealt with on the state or local level.

All of the candidates, up for election to an open seat in the newly drawn district, called for less government and described the current administration as one that creates people dependent on government instead of themselves.

In the two-hour forum moderated by Jim Galloway of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and John Clark of the Georgia News Network, candidates were asked questions by one another, those offered in past forums and some from the moderators.

On big issues such as health care, immigration and the deficit, the three mostly agreed.

Each wants to repeal the health care law passed by President Barack Obama.

 Collins called the legislation dangerous, saying getting rid of it would create jobs because businesses now can’t determine their costs as they look ahead.

“The House could defund it,” Fitzpatrick said. “... But on a more basic level I think that as citizens we need to encourage our state legislature to nullify it.”

Zoller said the legislation needs to be replaced and added that her work with her husband’s private physician’s practice has shown her its problems.

On illegal immigration, Zoller took pride in being a target for those campaigning for leniency in immigration law.

“There was a pro-illegal immigration rally that happened in Gainesville a few years ago and someone had a big face of mine on a placard with a big x through it,’ she said. “It was one of my finer days.”

She said she’d support securing the border, fixing the visa process, creating a no-amnesty work permit and a bill that would stop what she called “anchor babies,” children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants.

Collins also called for providing a stable workforce through a program that would send those workers home when their time expired.

Fitzpatrick said it was a national security matter and said he believes a problem with agricultural workers would not exist if people weren’t on the “government dole.”

On the deficit, each candidate spoke of reducing spending to get the deficit under control, hammering the thought that it is not a revenue problem.

“You can’t keep spending what you don’t have,” Collins said. He added that he would support zero-based budgeting, where everything is on the table.

Fitzpatrick focused on his experience in the school system, where employees took pay cuts when the money was not there.

“People were crying foul at the federal level because they weren’t going to get a raise in the next few years, and that is so absurd,” he said. “You’re going to get a raise when everybody else is losing jobs or at best taking pay cuts?” He advocated scaling back government, decreasing budgets for some departments and cutting other departments entirely.

Zoller railed against the current members of Congress for not doing the work to pass budgets.

All said they support the FairTax, which would be based on consumption instead of income.

The three candidates will appear on the ballot in the July 31 General Primary. The winner of that race faces Democrat Jody Cooley in the general election in November.