ORLANDO (BP)—With the field whittled down to eight, the leading Republican presidential candidates tried Oct. 21 to get an edge by debating which of them was more conservative.

The debate at Orlando was held two days after U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a prominent social conservative in the Senate, dropped out of the race because of low poll numbers. His absence allowed a few of the candidates to make their case to Brownback's supporters.

"I was conservative as soon as I put down Conscience of a Conservative when I was in college," former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson said of Barry Goldwater's 1960 book, according to a Congressional Quarterly transcript.

Thompson's pre-debate charges against former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney—he said they had liberal records—set the tone at the start of the debate when both men were asked by FOX News' Chris Wallace to respond.

"I brought down taxes $9 billion [and] cut them 23 times," Giuliani said. "I balanced the budget that was perennially out of balance [and] removed $2.3 billion [in] ... deficits and replaced them with surpluses. ... I drove pornography out of Times Square.... So I think that was a pretty darn good conservative record."

Said Romney, "Like Mayor Giuliani I had a tough state to be running in. I was a conservative Republican in a very Democrat state. My legislature [was] 85 percent Democrat. We faced a $3 billion budget gap. We solved it without raising taxes, without adding debt."

But while the candidates debated economic issues, they for the most part refused to be drawn into a debate about any hot-button social conservative issues, apart from a brief exchange between Romney, Giuliani and Rep. Ron Paul about a constitutional marriage amendment.

"I've been in a state that has gay marriage, and I recognize that the consequences of gay marriage fall far beyond just the relationship between a man and a woman," Romney said. "They also relate to our kids and the right of religion to be practiced freely in a society. For instance, I want to make sure that our kids have a mom and a dad. I want to make sure the Catholic Church in our state—that's been banned from doing adoptions because they want the kids to go into a home where there's a mom and a dad—that they can do adoptions again.

"The status of marriage, if it's allowed among same-sex individuals in one state it's going to spread to the entire nation. And that's why it's important to have a national standard for marriage."

Giuliani said he believes a marriage amendment is unnecessary now but can see a scenario where he'd change his mind.

"[I]f a lot of states start to do that [legalize gay marriage] - three, four, five, six states—where we have that kind of judicial activism ... then we should have a constitutional amendment," he said.

Paul also said he opposes an amendment, saying the federal government should stay out of the issue.

On the issue of abortion, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee reiterated his belief that his party should stick by its pro-life platform.

"There are some real issues out there in this country we need to be fighting for on behalf of the people. One of them, quite frankly, ... is the sanctity of human life," he said to applause. "I do believe that it is one of the defining issues of our culture and civilization, in that it expresses our understanding that every single human being in this society has intrinsic value and worth.

Appearing at only his second debate, Thompson for the first time was asked about his past work for Planned Parenthood.

"I was ... counsel to a large firm, and it was their client," he said. "They asked me to do a little work on it. I made a few calls, and that was that. Frankly, I'd forgotten about it. But they've come forward now, because I'm their worst nightmare. After that happened, I went to the United States Senate and voted consistently against them on every bill that came up. Now they're trying to defeat me."

Meanwhile, Romney's Mormon religion continues to cause concern among some evangelicals. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, preached a sermon Sept. 30 in which he asserted that Mormonism is not Christian. The Dallas Morning News ran a story Oct. 18 about the sermon.

"I am neither for nor against Mitt Romney," Jeffress told the congregation. "He may be a good leader. He may be a great father and husband. He may make a worthy president. But Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and ... even though he talks about Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he is not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. Mormonism is a cult."

The newspaper also quoted Jeffress as saying, "It's a little hypocritical for the last eight years to be talking about how important it is for us to elect a Christian president and then turn around and endorse a non-Christian. Christian conservatives are going to have to decide whether having a Christian president is really important or not." That last quote was not found in Jeffress' sermon and presumably was from an interview.

CLINTON AT ABORTION RIGHTS LUNCHEON

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton isn't trying to hide her pro-abortion rights views in her run for the Democratic nomination. She spoke at the Oct. 15 fall luncheon for the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee, which according to its website is "dedicated to building a new generation of pro-choice Democratic women leaders in New York State." More than 1,000 people attended, and the organization honored Ellen Malcom, founder and president of Emily's List, which works to elect pro-choice Democrats on the national level.