With 2002 elections just under a week away, some of the races are heating up as they enter the final days. One of these is between Bob Clement (D) and Lamar Alexander (R).

The two candidates have participated in a series of debates crossing the state, some being reduced to mud slinging.

Both candidates have brought up issues from each other's past ranging from money scandals to questionable choices while in office.

Through all of this, there are still some issues looming that actually matter in the grand scheme of things. Through all of this, who are these men and what do they stand for?

Bob Clement

Clement considers himself a fiscal conservative that holds strong convictions in family values.

Clement grew up in Nashville, graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1962. That same year he was elected youth governor of Tennessee in the YMCA Youth and Government Program, spurring his political career at an early age. Clement furthered his education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where he earned his B.A. before earning his M.B.A. at Memphis State University in 1968.

Following college, Clement joined the United States Army where he served two years. He was discharged as a first lieutenant and then served for 30 years in the Tennessee National Guard where he retired with the rank of Colonel.

Clement then entered his working career beginning with the Public Service Commission until, in 1979, he formed Bob Clement and Associates, a marketing and management firm.

Clement did this until he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to fill a position on the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors.

Following his work with the TVA, Clement was a partner and owner in Charter Equities, a real estate investment firm. He stayed there until assuming the role as President of Cumberland University in 1983. He stayed at Cumberland until deciding to run for Congress in 1987.

Clement was elected to fill the 5th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988 and is now finishing his seventh term. He currently serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as well as the Budget Committee.

He is married to the former Mary Carson and they have four children; Greg, Jeff, Elizabeth and Rachel.

Clement is basing his campaign on five main concepts: Social Security, Homeland Security, Securing Affordable Health Care, Pension Security and Education Security.

Clement says he is a strong advocate of Social Security and uses his experience as a veteran as a base for his stance on Homeland Security. He recently co-sponsored H.R. 4660, the National Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism Act of 2002. The resolution would ultimately create a cabinet level Department of Homeland Security.

Clement is a supporter of a real Patient's Bill of Rights and is focused on the high cost of prescription drugs. He is co-sponsor of H 1400 which would require drug manufacturers to adjust prices for Medicare patients to the average cost of the same drug in other countries.

In the wake of Enron and other similar scandals, Clement does not want people to lost confidence in pension plans and says he will work hard to make sure that type of thing does not happen around here.

Finally, Clement says he will work hard to make sure that Tennessee schools do not lose any more money and only get stronger.

Lamar Alexander

Running on the Republican side of the race is Lamar Alexander. Alexander was born in Maryville, Tenn., where he graduated from Maryville High School in 1948.

He continued his education at Vanderbilt University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was editor of the student newspaper. Alexander was also editor of the law review at New York University Law School. He was also a clerk in the United States Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Alexander furthered his political aspirations in 1967 when he became a legislative assistant to Sen. Howard Baker and in 1969 was executive assistant to Bryce Harlow, counsel for President Richard Nixon.

In 1974, Alexander made his first run for Governor of Tennessee but lost to Ray Blanton.

He came back in 1978 and ran against Gov. Blanton and won.

Alexander served two successive terms as governor.

Following his time as governor, Alexander served as President of the University of Tennessee from 1988 to 1991. He left his post at UT in 1991 when he was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to be Secretary of Education. He was unanimously confirmed by the senate.

Following his term as Secretary of Education, Alexander worked with his private law practice and ultimately had a failed run for the presidency in 1996.

He is married to Married to Leslee "Honey" Alexander, with four children: Drew, Leslee, Kathryn and Will.

Alexander has voiced his opinion on a large range of issues, with none that are clearly at the top of his agenda.

Alexander likes the ban on corporate contributions as part of campaign finance reform, but would like to take limits off of individual contributors and spending. He would like to see everything disclosed pertaining to funding elections, and have stiff fines for failure to disclose.

He uses the Class X crimes bill that he implemented as governor as an example of Project Exile. In Project Exile, gun-related crimes would carry mandatory sentences with them.

Alexander cites the projects success in Richmond, Va. as a reason for endorsing it.

Alexander is in favor of charter schools and thinks that Tennessee should join the other 38 states in the country that have started them.

He has made a pledge to clean air, saying that cars, TVA and other regional power plants are the biggest cause for our air problems.

He would like to see a 70 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in the next few years.

Alexander also thinks that the United States should reduce its dependence on Eastern oil. He finds the solution to this in drilling in a relatively small portion of Alaska.

When it comes to creating new jobs, Alexander looks to Knoxville as Tennessee's un-tapped resource. He wants to make the area that houses the University of Tennessee “one of America's entrepreneurial hotspots.”

Alexander wants a strong military and pledges all the support he can give to the armed forces.

He is in support of a prescription drug package that he believes should be four things: 1) Comprehensive, 2) Affordable, 3) Fiscally Sound, and 4) Strengthen Medicare.

Alexander is pro-life and wants to make adopting easier.

He wants Social Security to stay and would even go as far as to say that under the right circumstances, he would be in favor of allowing young people to choose to invest some of their social security money into a private retirement account.

He is against deregulating the TVA and says that the effects would turn into California's power situation.

Finally, Alexander would like to see a two year federal budget. He sees it as a way for politicians to do more management and less dealing with lobbyists and funding decisions.