With three parties, there is three times as many opportunities forconflict.

Last night College Republicans, College Democrats, and College Libertarians came together to debate on issues of tax cuts, environmental sustainability, foreign relations and free trade.

"It's very important that political groups on campus keep an open dialogue," said Brandon Means (sophomore-political science and history), a member of College Republicans.

Participants in the debate said they liked the involvement of a third party. Three members of each group participated in the event -- making nine participants all together.

"It was a long debate but necessarily long to include the Libertarians," said Jesse Steinweg-Woods (junior-meteorology and energy, business, and finance), a member of the College Democrats. He added the importance of having the College Libertarians there.

In his opening remarks, College Libertarian member Jim Farrand (senior-political science and history) said that although the Libertarians are the third-largest party, they are often ignored.

The College Republicans felt that the debate went well, said Alex Smith (freshman-finance), a member of the College Republicans.

"A lot of the issues we had the Libertarians on our side," he said.

Throughout the debate, four moderated questions were posed. Each group had a three-minute response time followed by a two-minute rebuttal period.

Farrand said that the questions about domestic policy were good, but there was too much agreement among parties about foreign affairs.

Following the official questions, there were six audience-posed questions about global warming, economics, industrialization in China, tax cuts, pork barrel spending and the role of the United Nations.

In response to an audience question, Steinweg-Woods proposed that the government should fund campaigns so that there would be a cap on candidate campaigning. He said that way the person with the best idea would win.

An audience member said that capping election funding was unconstitutional and supported by Supreme Court precedence.

Speaking to a crowd of about 50 students, moderator Monica Tulchinsky, president of Political Science Association, said that she thought the event went really well.

"People stayed in line," she said, referring to problems they have had in previous years. She added that a similar event will be held again next year.