Republican Steve McLaughlin and Democrat Andrea Smyth took issue with each other during Thursday's debate.

Smyth hammered the current assemblyman for cursing out a female staffer on tape.

"I've been shocked as I've gone door-to-door about how many voters have raised the issue of my opponent's horrible abuse of female staff," Smyth said.

McLaughlin criticized Smyth for breaking a promise not to use the recordings in her campaign.

"The politics of personal destruction are not what people wanna talk about," he said.

Smyth then went a step further, questioning the GOP in Rensselaer County when asked if she still has confidence in embattled DA Joel Abelove.

"I find that many of the Republican candidates put up to the voters are not qualified," she said.

"That is a beyond amazing statement that my opoonent would say many of the Republican candidates are not," McLaughlin responded. "I don't know where she comes up with this stuff."

The personal disagreements pointed to policy differences, including how to address water quality problems in the county.

"It was me who on day one called for the use of the Tomhannock Reservoir," McLaughlin said.

"It isn't just about finding a safe alternative to the drinking water, we need to do some public health training for the pediatricians and the primary care physicans who are up there," Smyth said.

They also spoke on the SAFE Act. Smyth said she believes it should be enforced as written.

"We've seen this in Columbia County where the DA chose not to press charges, so I leave it up to the district attorneys to do their jobs," McLaughlin said.

They also discussed how to address potential cuts to Medicaid and tax deductions coming from Washington.

"My goals are to continue the payoff of containing medicaid costs and to save taxpayer money through shared services," Smyth said.

"I would try to move our Medicaid recipients onto the county insurance, which has the potential to save us millions of dollars," said McLaughlin.

One thing they did agree on: Both see Amazon's HQ2 coming to Rensselaer and Albany as a longshot.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 7. The debate will re-air on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and again Sunday at 12:30 and 8 p.m.