The gloves came off early during a Monday night debate between state Rep. Keith Heard, D-Athens, and Democratic challenger Spencer Frye at East Friendship Baptist Church.

The candidates had several fiesty exchanges, one involving controversial state Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, who skipped the forum. Audience member Fred Smith tried to tie Frye to McKillip by bringing up a partnership between Frye and McKillip and suggesting that, like McKillip, Frye might switch parties.

"Of course I would never switch parties," Frye said. "That's ridiculous."

The Athens Area Habitat for Humanity executive director initially denied ever having a business partnership with McKillip. The two men formed ReNew Athens, a nonprofit Habitat program that involves renovating dilapidated apartment complexes, in 2009, when McKillip was a Democrat. Habitat recently finished fixing up a crime-ridden 16-unit East Broad Street complex using a $300,000 federal affordable housing grant. The co-founders have since parted ways.

"The opportunist that is Doug McKillip showed up for one board meeting, and we never saw him again," Frye said.

Heard and Frye took turns questioning each others' integrity. Frye accused Heard of voting with Republicans on issues like education funding and Georgia Power rates, while Heard claimed Frye is distorting his record.

Candidates for the westside Athens-Clarke Commission District 6 sparred over the role of the county planning commission. Ron Winders said the advisory board takes too long to approve rezonings for new developments. He called for revamping it or doing away with it altogether.

"We need to do a better job with that particular commission, if you will," Winders said.

Planning commissioner Jerry NeSmith called that idea "ridiculous." At its most recent meeting, the planning commission moved 10 of 11 items on to the county commission without delay, he said. Without the planning commission to make recommendations, the mayor and commission would be left to make zoning decisions in a political context, he said.

"The fact that you think the planning commission doesn't have a political agenda ... that's absurd," Winders said.

"You're not a planning commissioner. I am," NeSmith responded. "It's not political."

Both candidates agreed that the planning process needs to be streamlined.

In the race for District 4, representing the Five Points area and University of Georgia campus, David Ellison attacked Clarke County Board of Education member Allison Wright for her role in overseeing the school district's finances. A recent grand jury investigation and state audit found that the district had several accounting problems, including money stashed in hidden accounts and demolished buildings that were still on the books. Ellison called the problems "unacceptable."

"We as a community need to be very concerned about this grand jury report," he said.

Wright said the board knew about the problems and pushed district officials to fix them. "We were part of the solution," she said. "We had them corrected."

Full disclosure: I served as a panelist at the forum, along with WXAG general manager James Ford.