Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright said the proposed $700 billion economic bailout voted down by the House on Monday had too many unanswered questions.

The Democratic candidate for Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District said he could not have voted for the bailout plan.

“I had too many members of Congress say to me that they didn’t want to vote for it but they did anyway,” Bright said. “That should never take place. There were to many issues and unanswered questions.”

Bright said he would advocate taking a more bipartisan approach toward drafting a new bailout plan that protects citizens.

“We need to work together to find a solution and we need to do it quickly, with the idea of protecting the average citizen and setting in place a bipartisan panel of experts to oversee this and ensure we never get in this kind of shape again,” Bright said.

Speaking to members of the Troy Kiwanis Club Tuesday night, Bright spoke out against partisan squabbling in Congress and pledged to take a more centrist approach if elected.

“Parties have perpetuated a fraud on our state,” Bright said. “They come and connect with us by our moral issues … and then they go to Washington and tow the party line.”

Members of Congress should put the people’s needs over party agenda’s, Bright said.

“My agenda is you agenda,” he said.

If elected, Bright would break more than 40 years of Republican control of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. He faces GOP nominee Jay Love, a state representative from Montgomery.

“We’ve got to get America back on track,” Bright said. “I want to represent the vast majority of people in America who are right in the center.”