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BENSON — When is a debate not really a debate?

When only one party's candidates show up, as was the case Wednesday night for the Citizens Clean Elections Commission debate showcasing Legislative District 25's House of Representatives hopefuls.

Rather than get a chance to square off against their Republican counterparts, Democrats Richard Boyer and Pat Fleming spent about 45 minutes mostly echoing each other's stances on issues such as the economy, education, immigration and rural health care.

Republican David Stevens, a civilian defense contractor from Sierra Vista, is working in Kuwait and was unable to attend the debate at Cochise College's Benson Center.

Republican Timathy Davies, a Marana resident who works for Asarco, did not respond to invitations to Wednesday's event, Clean Elections officials said.

"That doesn't say very much about commitment," said Fleming, a retired U.S. Army civilian employee from Sierra Vista who ran unsuccessfully for a District 25 House seat in 2006. "The opponents don't know anything about this district."

District 25, one of the state's largest, stretches across parts of five counties. It includes Marana west of Interstate 10 and extends northwest into Maricopa County and Pinal County, south to the Mexican border and southeast across Santa Cruz County. It also includes most of Cochise County other than Sierra Vista.

Both House seats are up for grabs in District 25, as three-term Republican Jennifer Burns decided not to seek re-election and three-term Democrat Manny Alvarez is running for the district's open state Senate seat.

Boyer, a former Bisbee city magistrate who now lives in Hereford, said the expansiveness of the district makes it difficult for new candidates to get their voices heard.

"People don't know who their state representatives are, who their state senators are, unless maybe they are their neighbor," Boyer said.

Boyer, who spent 10 years as a state senator in New Hampshire, said a third of the people who voted in District 25's House primaries chose only one candidate instead of two. He attributed that to a lack of knowledge about the candidates.

While the House Democrats resorted to holding an informal forum for the 20 or so people in attendance Wednesday, a full-fledged debate was held between Alvarez and his challenger for Senate, Republican Mary Ann Black.

The candidates didn't differ much on the issues discussed.

Both expressed a desire to set up a program calling for hospitals to sponsor prospective medical students, helping to offset tuition costs in exchange for those students spending their first years as doctors in a rural setting.

"It's very hard to get someone to go to school and be educated, and then come back to Cochise County," said Alvarez, a rancher and farmer from Elfrida.

Both also agreed that state and local government should not be responsible for handling illegal immigration, and that a solution to Arizona's problem should include eliminating checkpoints.

"They need to be on the border securing the border," said Black, a conservationist from Hereford. "All they're trying to do (at checkpoints) is catch drug smugglers and people smugglers, so they can seize vehicles."

On the issue of transportation, Black said toll roads could be the answer to solving the state's shortfall on funding for roads, while Alvarez said a better idea would be implementing a light-rail system between Phoenix and Tucson to help ease traffic on the interstates.

Alvarez and Black are seeking the Senate seat left vacant by Marsha Arzberger, who termed out.