The candidates running for Putnam County District Attorney went head-to-head in a debate Monday night on News 12.

Incumbent DA Adam Levy and his challenger, Robert Tendy, expressed their views on the economy and the war on drugs, among other issues, in their bids for the job.

Levy defended his record, while Tendy, Putnam County supervisor since 2007, offered a new approach.

"Take on the party machinery and deal with what I consider to be severe ethical problems -- what I consider to be indictments against people who are innocent," Tendy said.

The candidates also debated the ongoing defamation lawsuit Levy filed against Putnam County Sheriff Donald Smith.

"I filed...that defamation lawsuit against Sheriff Smith because he accused me, the sitting district attorney, of influencing in a criminal investigation to help my friend who we all know to be 100 percent innocent," Levy said.

Both candidates agreed on two issues: They agreed that drug court is working to battle Putnam's heroin epidemic, and both supported the Second Amendment right to carry a weapon.