Who is the real Republican?

Until less than two years ago, state Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, was a Democrat who supported raising taxes to fund education, abortion rights and tax breaks for the poor.

Republican opponent Regina Quick touts her GOP credentials going back to 2004, but before that, she voted in Democratic primaries, and she enjoys support from Democrats today.

The candidates sought to paint each other as liberal during a Clarke County GOP forum Monday.

McKillip addressed his left-wing past early on.

"I have renounced those policies and politics," he said. "I was wrong. I made a mistake."

As proof, McKillip pointed to the "fetal pain" law limiting abortions after 20 weeks he ushered through the legislature this year, as well as his efforts to block locally-drawn Athens-Clarke Commission districts in favor of a map friendlier to Republicans.

Quick opposes the new abortion law and says abortion should be banned after 23 weeks, according to the viability standard set by federal courts. She's also taken campaign contributions from Democrats.

"When we talk about everybody's past history, there's a little bit of explaining to do on the other side of the room, as well," McKillip said.

Quick explained her support among Democrats by quoting an old Arabic saying: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

McKillip attacked her for accepting contributions from Democrats like Athens-Clarke Mayor Nancy Denson and former state Sen. Doug Haines, attending a Clarke County Democratic Committee fundraiser where politicos roasted Republican former mayor Doc Eldridge and contributing to Commissioner Mike Hamby's 2010 campaign.

"She's liberal," he said. "She's more liberal even then most Democrats."

He also said she "snuck off to Decatur and had a fundraiser with Democrats," and accused her of saying one thing there and another to Republicans in the district, which Quick and one of the fundraiser's hosts who attended the forum, Krista Brewer, disputed. Former state Rep. Bob Smith, R-Watkinsville, and local Republican Party official John Padgett were also among the hosts for that fundraiser. Quick and Brewer also disputed McKillip's statement that taping and photos were banned at the fundraiser, noting that Atlanta political journalist Tom Crawford attended it and reported on it.

Brewer said she supports Quick because she's angry about McKillip's abortion bill and Quick, though conservative, will stand up to House Republican leadership.

Quick said she has voted in Democratic primaries because, before local elections became nonpartisan in 2006, that was where most races were decided. "I'm not going to sit out an election," she said. She gave to Hamby because he was running against then-commissioner Elton Dodson, a liberal whom she called John Barrow's protege, and supported "my friend" Haines in his 2004 congressional race out of animosity toward Barrow, she said. "I'll taking him over John Barrow any day of the week," she said.

Quick urged voters to look at McKillip's record prior to 2011.

"There is a trust issue in this campaign, but I'm afraid it's not on my side of the equation," she said.

Quick has not accepted any contributions from lobbyists or special-interest groups, she said, and she criticized McKillip for raising campaign money from PACs and lobbyists and taking his family to the Sugar Bowl on the University of Georgia's dime.

"Until we have ethics reform, we will not solve the problem, because love of that money is the root of all evil in Atlanta," Quick said.

McKillip, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said he brought funding for the new medical campus, veterinary hospital, pharmacy building and special collections library to Athens, and trips and meals never influenced his vote. Lobbyist spending is transparent, he said.

"What you want is sunshine so when anyone is going to dinner or whatever you can look at it and point it out," he said.

A tax reform law the legislature passed this year was another point of contention. McKillip said it eliminates the "birthday tax" on cars, replacing it with a one-time title fee, but Quick said it will actually cost drivers more if they sell their cars every five years, citing data from the Clarke County Tax Commissioner's office.

The candidates will go at it again at a 7:30 p.m. forum Tuesday at Oconee County Veterans' Park.