STAMFORD -- The widening Foley/Page scandal in the halls of Congress Wednesday fired up a debate among 4th Congressional District candidates Democrat Diane Farrell, Republican Chris Shays, the incumbent, and Phil Maymin, Libertarian.

A lightning rod issue, the scandal drew plenty of sparks and lots of heated give and take from participants.

The one-hour debate, the first of 11 among the trio of candidates, took place in the Stamford Marriott and was sponsored by the Business Council of South Western Connecticut.

Outraged, Farrell said: Everyone involved should resign.

The scandal involves Floridian Republican Congressman Mark Foley. He resigned after ABC news revealed he had been sexually harassing and flirting with pages on the Internet a crime when underaged are involved.

To Farrell's demand that congresspersons who knew should quit, Shays shot back: Does that include Democrats?

Given the context of the debate at that point, Farrell electrified the audience when she disclosed her daughter had been a congressional page. She declared the reports on Foley just make her very sick at heart.

Maymin said: Everyone who broke a law should be punished to the full extent of the law.

The scandal has been on the front page of The New York Times and newspapers around the world since it broke. It is Topic A on TV news broadcasts and appears to be within striking distance of taking seats from a number of Republican congressmen.

Especially at risk, it appears, are those who knew and didn't blow a whistle as underage males were being sexually harassed. Also believed at possible risk are an unspecified number who accepted campaign contributions from Foley.

Farrell insisted that anyone who had campaign money from Foley should give it back.

There was a suggestion that Shays could be in hot water. Speaker Dennis Hastert from Illinois, being pressured to resign, staged a fund-raiser for him. Farrell insisted that Shays give the money back. Hastert is in charge of the congressional pages.

At presstime, Shays campaign manager had been expected to comment on this when asked by the Greenwich Citizen. But he did not call at the promised time, 4:45 p.m.

Hastert appeared with Shays in the Greenwich Town Hall Meeting Room last year. He boosted Shays to the rafters for his many deeds in Congress.

The Foley/Page scandal opener of the three-way debate was followed by the Iraq war issue. Not surprisingly, Farrell continued to bash Shays and President George W. Bush for not having a plan to pull out of Iraq on an ordered timeline.

Her mantra: The loss of 2,700 young American lives and the war bill, $250 million a day, is deplorable.

Shays pulled a surprise during the debate when hit with Farrell's claims that his 14 trips to Iraq haven't done anything to improve the situation.

In the style of a student taking an open book test, he often referred to and read from a thick booklet that described his Iraq war trips and accomplishments. Some of the documentation in the book was reprints of favorable newspaper articles.

I'll make this available after the debate, he said.

Shays also said after a recent trip to Iraq he wrote a letter to President Bush and recommended that a new team leader might be needed.

Farrell shrugged and said that is nothing but a passive approach. You didn't propose any legislation, something active, she said.

Farrell said people in the voting booth should consider if they are better off today than they were two years ago. If not, she said folks should vote for her to get real change going in Washington, wresting control of the Senate and House from the Republicans.

Shays said, sounding a bit like U.S. . Joe Lieberman, he is an independent and the country needs him now more than ever.

We are Americans first and Republicans or Democrats second, he said. The country needs me now more than ever.

Maymin, of Greenwich, promised in Congress he would work to repeal the income tax and put in a national sales tax to fund a much smaller federal government.