BOISE - Republican Gov. Butch Otter and his Democratic rival Keith Allred couldn't quite bring themselves to compliment each other at Wednesday's debate in Boise. Asked to say something nice about the other, both seemed so deeply embroiled in their 2010 race that there was no room for heartfelt pleasantries, at least not in public.

"He's a good sport when he comes off his horse," said Allred, alluding to Otter's habit of getting injured during rodeo events since being elected in 2006. Allred, who rides cutting horses, contended, "I just don't come off my horse as much."

Otter thought about it, then said he was impressed by Allred's credentials as a former Harvard University professor - before hinting that standing in front of an Ivy League classroom might not be the best preparation for climbing into the trenches of state government.

"You can't run government on a theoretical basis," Otter told more than 400 people gathered at the City Club of Boise. "You have to operate with real decisions."

The event, the second of four planned debates ahead of the Nov. 2 election, lacked the head-to-head fireworks of their first meeting in Idaho Falls in August, largely because Wednesday's format didn't allow for rebuttals.

But the hour-long exchange was enough for both men to hammer themes they've been emphasizing all along the campaign trail.

Otter, 68, maintains he's the fiscal hawk who balanced the 2011 budget without raising taxes, while challenging the federal government over health care reform and the Endangered Species Act.

One business, C3 from Florida, told him it opened a call center in Twin Falls earlier this year because of the state's fiscal restraint.

"You had a balanced budget. You were living within the taxpayers' means," Otter said he was told by the company's executives, on why it moved to southern Idaho.

Meanwhile, Allred, 46, is trying to persuade voters that his rival has been in public office so long - nearly three decades, as lieutenant governor and U.S. representative before his chief executive stint - that he's firmly in the pocket of special interests, at the expense of public education and Idaho families.

"Under Butch Otter's plan, he wanted Idaho families to further subsidize the trucking industry," Allred said of Otter's failed push in 2009 to double personal vehicle registration fees, while only hiking fees for heavy trucks by 5 percent.

That year, Allred's nonpartisan group The Common Interest rallied against registration hikes.

"Leadership requires making tough decisions," Otter countered. "Folks, we have to have a vision for what our highways are going to be. It can't be from year to year."

Otter lives in a suburb just west of Idaho's capital, not far from Allred, an Eagle resident.

Still, the debate in Boise could probably be counted as Democrat-friendly turf, since 12 of the Idaho Legislature's 25 minority party members come from the city. The questions, read by moderator Jim Weatherby, came from the audience, and one was laced with a barb directed at Otter.

Was he "satisfied knowing that he cut $128 million to education and are instead putting hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of dollars, suing the federal government over health care?"

Otter paused, turned to Allred and asked, "Did you write that question?"

"Do you want to repeat that question?" Allred urged Weatherby, professor emeritus of Boise State University's political science department.

The candidates broke up laughing; so did the crowd.

Otter said he wouldn't apologize for taking on Congress after Democrats there voted this year to eventually require Idaho residents to buy health insurance. He also said the much-publicized lawsuit, brought by 20 states, has so far cost Idaho just $6,000.

"It's not what the founders intended, that the states in order to exercise their sovereignty should have to go hat in hand to Washington, D.C., and say, 'Please may I have a waiver on the health care?'" Otter said.

Allred countered that his rival is relying on the courts to solve Idaho problems.

"If there's anything that is more than messed up right now than Congress, it's the federal judges," Allred said. "When it comes to health care, when it comes to wolves, when it comes to the Clean Water Act, the way we protect Idaho's sovereignty is to roll up our sleeves and solve the problems for ourselves."