ST. CHARLES • Mayor Patti York and April 5 election challenger Sally Faith both came out Monday night against a state "right-to-work" law and supported putting an indoor smoking ban on a citywide ballot.

Those were among new issues covered during a 90-minute-plus debate between the two mayoral candidates at the Town Hall in the New Town development.

"I don't want to see our state go as a right-to-work state," York said. "I know there are people who say that would be better for businesses" but she contended that hadn't happened in states that have adopted such a policy.

Faith, a state representative, said she has committed to labor leaders that she won't support the bill - which would outlaw labor contracts with union dues a condition of employment - if it comes up this year in the House.

Faith said in an interview after the debate that she had supported the issue as a way to spur job growth when it came up a few years ago in Jefferson City but had since changed her view on it.

The issue came up in a portion of the debate in which candidates answered questions from a few of the 100 or so people in attendance at New Town's Town Hall.

The question on "right-to-work" was asked by York's son, Adrian York, a St. Louis police detective. Tri-County Labor, an AFL-CIO umbrella group, has endorsed York.

The smoking issue, meanwhile, was raised by a resident who complained that York and the council in 2008 hadn't acted on a city health panel's recommendation that a ban be placed on the ballot then.

While York and Faith both said they support the idea of asking  voters to decide the issue in a future election, they didn't specify whether the city proposal should have any exemptions.

Among other issues that came up:

* Faith said she as mayor would oppose extending city benefits to unmarried domestic partners of employees but added that "it needs to be looked at" by the council.

York said she would consider the idea. "A family is whatever you believe your family to be," she said.

* York criticized Faith for running last fall for re-election to her House seat, then announcing her mayoral candidacy soon thereafter.

"She kept saying I want to be a state legislator, elect me, I will work for you and a week later, she decided to run for mayor," York said. "I just feel that was not the way to go about it."

If Faith is elected mayor, York added, the state could pay for a special election if Gov. Jay Nixon calls one to pick a successor for Faith in the House. Or, York noted, the governor could opt to leave the district unrepresented for a year and a half.

Faith said she had been considering the race since 2009 but that three issues that developed in the fall spurred her to actually run.

"The things that made me decide to do this was the director of finance, the senior tax credit that was not approved and the mayor receiving a salary increase," Faith said.

That was a reference to the $235,823 buyout approved by York and the council for the city's former finance director; the city's decision to end part of a tax rebate program for older residents and the council's approval of a salary hike for whoever is elected mayor April 5.

Those have been among Faith's talking points throughout the campaign.

York, meanwhile, again hammered Faith for her vote in the House this year to negate part of a voter-approved minimum wage law and her co-sponsorship of a bill to repeal voter-passed restrictions on dog breeding.