Fresh off last week's special election runoff win for the 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom Graves was still fending off challenges Saturday before he had even been sworn in.

The Ranger Republican will finish former Rep. Nathan Deal's term through the year after he takes office Monday, but to serve a full two-year term he still has to win a July 20 primary election. On Saturday, three of his opponents joined him at a candidate forum held by the Hall County Republican Party.

It was a forum heavy on the issues but light on debate, though Chickamauga businessman Steve Tarvin did confront Graves over a bank's lawsuit against Graves alleging default on a $2.2 million loan.

"Clarify this situation" said Tarvin, who finished third with 15 percent of the vote in a eight-candidate special election May 11. "Answer to the voters of the district about this charge."

Graves responded, "This isn't a tough question."

"The fact is, disputes occur each and every day in the state of Georgia between various entities, especially in the business environment we're in right now," said Graves, who has filed a counterclaim against Bartow County Bank over a loan he and former state Rep. Chip Rogers took out to buy a motel in Calhoun.

"This is a claim that was filed against me in which there's a counterclaim filed against them. We live in a free nation in which we have three branches. One is the judicial branch, in which defendants have the opportunity to defend themselves, and this is no different."

Gainesville's Lee Hawkins, who last week finished second to Graves with 44 percent of the vote in the runoff, asked Graves if he would denounce the Club for Growth, a group Hawkins said sent out false campaign mailers with doctored images of him.

Graves responded, "you will not find me denounce the most free-market, capitalistic, limited government, less-tax organization in the nation."

Most of the hour-plus forum was spent by the candidates taking turns addressing the economy, national security, health care and immigration.

Tarvin commented on illegal immigrants: "We, the Americans who pay them, are the reason they're here. I don't blame them, I blame us."

Said Graves, "Amnesty is not the answer. The answer is to secure and defend our borders."

Sugar Hill's Bobby Reese, who did not run in the special election but is on the ballot for the Republican primary, said, "we don't need immigration reform, we need immigration enforcement."

Said Hawkins, "I firmly believe we should seal our borders, and I do not believe in amnesty."

Addressing the economy and the federal budget, Hawkins said he had signed a "no earmarks pledge," while Graves said, "we need to fire some of these czars and put them on the unemployment line instead of Georgians."

On the issue of water and the future of Lake Lanier, Hawkins said he would propose legislation to amend the 1942 Rivers and Safe Harbors Act to include human consumption and recreation for Lake Lanier.
Tarvin said it was an issue that should have been handled on the state level with the construction of new reservoirs.

Reese said he doubted a freshman Republican in Congress would have much clout in Washington when it came to the tri-state water dispute.

All candidates were in favor of continued oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, and all were against extension of federal unemployment benefits.

"There's those that can't and those that won't," Tarvin said. "Those who can't, we take care of, but I have no compassion in my heart for those who won't."

Tarvin provided some liveliness to the forum and drew more than a few chuckles from the audience with passionate responses that sometimes strayed off-topic.

When Reese was given the chance to ask a question of another candidate, he asked the bald Tarvin, "who does your hair?"

Tarvin later joked, "when me and Tom (Graves) are together, I say one's good looking, the other's got hair."