CHARLOTTE — Incumbent Democrat Mel Watt and Republican challenger Chad Mitchell had a lively exchange on issues Monday morning during a 12th District U.S. House debate.

The candidates touched on a wide range of topics, including fuel prices, abortion rights, missile defense, minimum wage, prescription drugs, school vouchers, gun control and campaign finance reform.

Watt said he offers a proven record, while Mitchell asked that he not be judged solely on the political party to which he belongs.

Afterwards, Mitchell emphasized that he doesn’t always align himself with the Republican Party on some issues — that he’s an individual and independent thinker first.

“I think it went well,” Mitchell said of the debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. “I enjoy the opportunity to meet my opponent face to face.”

Mitchell and Watt shook hands and spoke briefly with each other minutes after the taping of the debate concluded at WTVI in Charlotte. The public television station (Time Warner Cable Channel 4) will broadcast half-hour debates among candidates in the 9th District and 12th District from 8 to 9 p.m. Thursday.

The 9th District debate will come first in that hour slot.

The 12th District debate did not include Libertarian candidate Anna Lyon of Kernersville.

Questions for the candidates came from an audience selected by the League of Women Voters.

Mitchell and Watt had met previously at a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Black Caucus forum. In his closing comments, Watt said he admired school teacher Mitchell’s participation as a candidate, but he added that he hoped the election would return Mitchell to the classroom on a full-time basis.

Mitchell, a resident of Faith, teaches history at East Rowan High School. He barely meets the minimum age requirement of 25 to run for Congress. He celebrates his 25th birthday on Oct. 23, 15 days before the Nov. 7 election.

The newly aligned 12th District is a mostly urban territory, extending from Charlotte to Greensboro and including all or portions of 13 precincts in Rowan County. Most Salisbury precincts, except for Milford Hills, lie in the 12th.

The 12th District candidates found common ground on a couple of topics. Both spoke in favor of background checks for people who purchase firearms at gun shows — the same controls that exist for people who buy guns at stores.

They also stressed the importance of enforcing existing gun laws on the books.

Both support increasing the minimum wage. If a person works 40 hours a week at the current minimum wage, he still falls below the nation’s poverty line, Watt said. Mitchell said it should be made a livable wage, but he also pushed for tax credits to high-paying industries if they locate in economically poor areas.

The candidates had sharp differences on abortion, a national missile defense system and, to a degree, school vouchers.

Mitchell said he is pro-life and doesn’t believe abortion should be used as birth control. He added that he looks at abortion as a states rights issue.

Watt, who supports a woman’s right to abortion, called himself “flabbergasted” that Mitchell could view abortion as a states rights issue. The federal government, not individual states, should be involved in the abortion question from a constitutional perspective, Watt said.

Mitchell expressed strong support for a national missile defense system. He warned that the real danger of nuclear attack may come from rogue nations with nuclear capabilities. He said the country should begin research on land-, sea- and space-based platforms to defend against missile attack.

Watt said the country faces greater dangers from computer viruses and terrorist bombs. No one has proven to him that a “Star Wars” defense system will work, Watt said. He said such a system has been studied without success and would cost at least a trillion dollars, which he decried as a waste of taxpayer money.

In the country’s most peaceful period ever, it still spends 17 percent of its budget on defense, Watt said. He argued that a better approach would be for the country to build its relationships with other countries in the world. He chastised the Republican Party for not wanting to support the United Nations.

Mitchell said he supports school vouchers to a limited degree, concentrating first on help for students attending underachieving public schools. He would make vouchers available that those students could use to enter a private school and said the country has an obligation to offer the disadvantaged a way out of poor public schools.

Though Watt said he has never totally opposed vouchers, he could not support what he described as partial vouchers. If someone offered a full voucher program — one that pays the whole cost of a student going to private school — Watt said he could support vouchers.

“Not one single person has put that on the table,” he said, noting the enormous cost that would be involved.

A $500 voucher won’t help a poor family enroll a child in a private school that charges $10,000 a year, Watt said as an example. So partial vouchers would only serve as a supplement to the rich.

On rising fuel costs, Mitchell said the Congress was short-sighted years ago not to begin innovative research for alternative energy sources. Watt said he was leery about turning decisions involving fuel prices over to “two oil men,” a reference to the Republican ticket of Texas Gov. George W. Bush and running mate Dick Cheney.

Watt warned that the top two Republicans have a vested interest in the oil industry and represent the same people who have blocked the kind of research into alternative energy sources that Mitchell mentioned.

“You’re kind of out of step with the position your party has taken,” Watt told Mitchell.

“My party does not define my views,” Mitchell answered.

Earlier, Mitchell questioned Watt’s co-sponsoring HR 1598, the Claritin Patent Extension Act. Mitchell said the legislation would have cost consumers $11 billion extra by granting this special patent extension favor to the Schering-Plough drug company.

Without the extension, less expensive generic drugs could be offered in place of the Claritin name brand, which generates $5 million in sales daily, Mitchell said. He added that the legislation would have added to the drug costs of seniors and the poor.

Watt said patent protection is important to innovation and that companies have a period of protection.