Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Republican challenger Tim Sheehy spent a full seven minutes of Monday nights one-hour debate sparring over the issue of federal public lands.

Tester, who is running for a fourth term in a pivotal race that could ultimately decide which party controls the Senate next year, repeatedly painted Sheehy as a threat to Americas public lands and the Montana way of life.

He referred multiple times to HuffPosts reporting that first revealed Sheehy called for federal lands to be turned over to states or counties; failed to disclose his post on the board of the Property and Environment Research Center, a Bozeman-based property rights and environmental research nonprofit with a history of advocating for privatizing federal lands; and appeared to doctor a recent TV ad to remove PERCs logo from the shirt he was wearing.

Sheehy largely avoided engaging in the specifics of Testers attacks, instead continuing a muddled effort to rewrite his record on the issue and accusing Tester of trying to tear down any organization he has been affiliated with.

The extensive back-and-forth came after Montana PBS journalist John Twiggs asked the candidates which entities are best equipped to manage the approximately 27 million acres of federal lands in Montana while maintaining public access.

Bottom line: Public lands belong in public hands, Sheehy said.

Tester marveled at what he described as Sheehys incredible transformation on this issue while warning voters to watch out what people say in back rooms.

What they say in back rooms, when they dont think the recorder is going or the camera is running, is usually what they think, he said. And Tim said we need to turn our lands over to either his rich buddies or county government. Thats not protecting public lands.