DALTON, Ga. — Candidates for state Senate District 54 clashed Tuesday night over a bill that would have changed the driver’s licenses Georgia issues to illegal aliens to make them distinguishable from those issued to citizens and legal aliens.

“I would have voted for that bill,” said Scott Tidwell, a pastor and assistant funeral home director from Resaca. “I believe that the illegal alien problem is a great one, and Georgia needs to stop being a magnet for illegal aliens.”

The man he is challenging in the May 22 Republican Party primary, incumbent Chuck Payne of Dalton, said Tidwell is “misinforming” voters about both the bill and his vote against it.

“He says I sided with Democrats and with illegal aliens. That just isn’t true,” Payne said.

The two faced off at Southeast Whitfield High School in a forum hosted by the Daily Citizen-News.

Payne was one of two Republicans who joined with three Democrats in a 5-4 vote against the bill in the Senate Public Safety Committee in the past session.

“This was a state driver’s license bill, not an immigration bill,” he said. “I read through these bills before I vote on them, and all this bill would have done was increase government. It wouldn’t deny any driver’s license to anyone. At the end of the day, everyone who is driving in Georgia would still be driving.”

The state issues driver’s licenses to those who do not have lawful status but have been issued work permits under former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

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Both men said they oppose raising the minimum age to purchase rifles to 21 from 18, as Florida recently did in reaction to the February shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 people.

“I am a supporter of the Second Amendment and have long been a member of the NRA (National Rifle Association),” said Tidwell.

Payne said he supports the Second Amendment but agrees with a proposed ban on bump stocks, devices added to rifles that allow a shooter to fire them more rapidly at the expense of accuracy.

“Federal law already prohibits modifying a semi-automatic rifle to make it fire fully automatically,” Payne said, adding that he did not understand why the federal government had not already banned them.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in March the Department of Justice is proposing to amend federal regulations to ban bump stocks.

The winner of the District 54 state Senate GOP primary will face Democrat Michael S. Morgan in the Nov. 6 general election.

Barry Robbins, who holds the District 1 seat on the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners, and Mike Cowan, who is challenging him in the GOP primary, also were part of the forum. Cowan held that seat for 14 years, from 1997 to 2010. He came off the board due to term limits.

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Both said they are dismayed by the fact the county’s maintenance and operations tax rate has risen by 53 percent since 2012, to 9.329 mills from 6.061.

“I have voted against tax increases,” said Robbins, who noted that he has advocated for more restraint in spending.

“I am against a tax increase,” said Cowan.

Both said they are opposed to tearing down Administrative Building 2 on King Street, where commissioners meet. The building is not handicapped accessible and does not have sprinklers. In addition, the acoustics in the board’s meeting room are poor, and audience members frequently complain they cannot hear commissioners and others when they speak, and commissioners are considering replacing the building.

“I don’t think that building is all that inadequate,” said Cowan, who added that it might need some changes.

Robbins said he does not support construction of a new building.

“I do agree that the acoustics in the building are very inadequate,” he said, adding that he believes the county could find a less expensive solution to that problem than a new building.

No Democrat qualified for District 1, so the winner of the Republican primary is the likely winner in the general election.