NORTH MANKATO — In a week dominated by talk of Republican congressional candidate Allen Quist's past, the retired St. Peter farmer spent an hour in North Mankato Thursday night talking about the issues he cares about.

The town hall forum came less than three weeks before voters will decide whether to send Quist or state Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, up against Democratic Congressman Tim Walz on Nov. 6. A former Bethany Lutheran College instructor, Quist gave a 20-minute lecture focused on the national debt before responding to questions from a friendly audience of about 70 people.

There was virtually no talk of Quist's efforts in the 1980s, when he was a three-term state representative, to combat homosexual promiscuity in an effort to stem the AIDS epidemic. And there was no discussion of his comments during a 1994 gubernatorial bid that husbands have a genetic predisposition to have a higher level of authority in a marriage.

Parry has been highlighting those issues this week, while Quist has said he wants to focus on federal fiscal matters that have reached a crisis stage.

"I have never seen an election where the issues are so clear," he said, showing charts of the mounting national debt Ñ more than a trillion dollars being added annually in recent years.

While Quist didn't directly attack Parry from the podium, fliers were passed out addressing Quist's statements about homosexual promiscuity and his 1988 visit to a Mankato adult bookstore in search of evidence of the gay sex he believed was occurring there.

"The Mike Parry campaign has now gone almost completely negative," the flier began. "His negative attacks focus on personal matters, not on policy. ... Why is Mike Parry afraid to engage in a genuine debate?"

The most important difference between the two candidates, Quist said, is that he is pledging to balance the federal budget in an unambiguous time period (five years) while Parry offers only a vague promise to eliminate the annual red ink at some point in the future.

A deadline is key, Quist said, comparing Parry's approach to a college professor who fails to give students a firm due-date for an assignment.

"What if I just say, "Well, hand it in when you get it done?" How many papers am I going to get?"

Quist said his strategy for such a rapid and dramatic turn-around in the federal financial mess involves joining the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House members. He'd then work to expand the number of lawmakers pledging to balance the budget in five years. Once a group of about 125 is established, the coalition will have enough clout to influence the House budget-setting process, he said.

The new process would involve setting spending maximums for each budget bill that would steadily decline over five years until spending and revenue match. He said he wouldn't raise tax rates but would eliminate regulations to boost economic growth, which would result in more tax revenue.

Quist offered no specific cuts in government services or entitlements that he would favor, other than eliminating a federally-funded peat-bog study in western Minnesota. He did say he would reduce military spending, an untouchable spending category for many Republicans.

"Can we make reductions in defense spending? Yes we can. And, frankly, I think we have to."

Quist said the focus needs to be on high-tech warfare, accusing China of hijacking the U.S. drone that landed in Iran late last year.

"That was done by Chinese scientists who took over the controls of the drone and landed it," he said. "I mean, this is modern warfare."

Quist also repeated his claim that President Obama and the Democrats are purposely attempting to dismantle the institution of marriage by imposing higher costs -- such as with the new health care reform -- on married couples filing jointly compared to individual taxpayers cohabitating.

"This is -- let me be very explicit -- one of the hidden agendas in Obamacare," Quist said. "And let me be very explicit, this is designed to destroy marriage for the middle class."

The primary election between Quist and Parry is on Aug. 14.