Democrat Jared Polis and Republican Walker Stapleton will face off on the issues Saturday night in Colorado Springs along with other candidates for statewide office at a debate event staged by Colorado Politics, The Gazette and TV station KOAA News5.

The gubernatorial debate begins at 7 p.m. at the Garden Pavilion at the Penrose House Conference Center, near The Broadmoor. It will air live on KOAA and stream online here at ColoradoPolitics.com as well as at Gazette.com. The El Pomar Foundation is sponsoring and hosting the event.

Before Polis and Stapleton debate, the major party candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and state treasurer will answer questions for 90 minutes beginning at 5 p.m.

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The meeting is the fifth of eight debates between Polis and Stapleton in the run-up to the Nov. 6 election. Ballots will be mailed out on Monday.

Candidates are expected to answer questions posed by me and Elizabeth Watts, KOAA News5 anchor, about the major issues driving this election: Health care costs, funding to keep their promises on education, and the future of energy and jobs, as well managing transportation needs in an economy that’s bound to cool down. KOAA News5 anchor Rob Quirk will act as moderator

In previous debates, Polis has been vague about paying for universal health care and all-day preschool for every child. Trailing in the polls, Stapleton has been on the attack to shake up the race.

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In their last meeting, Monday night in Pueblo, Stapleton continued to push a message that Polis’ spending proposals were “radical and extreme.”

Polis accused the Republican state treasurer of “name-calling.”

“If you will tell these people how you will pay for it, I’ll stop calling you a radical,” Stapleton answered.

Polis has maintained in the debates so far this his proposals are forward-looking. While Stapleton has argued the Democratic agenda to replace the use of fossil fuels for power production in the state by 2040 would kill the oil and gas industry (worth an estimated $32 billion in spending and $1 billion in state and local taxes), Polis has said his plan is a goal, not a mandate.

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Stapleton, meanwhile, has moderated his tone on sanctuary cities, a talking point he embraced with support from former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, an immigration hard-liner who wants undocumented immigrants sent back to where they came from.

Stapleton said his crackdown on sanctuary cities applies only to felons that should be held for federal immigration agencies, tasked with enforcing federal immigration laws. Stapleton said he would not ask to see people’s residency papers, as Democrats have alleged against him.

Polis has maintained a lead in public and internal polling since the primary.

This week, a survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (with the Colorado Health Foundation) gave Polis an 11-point lead among registered voters, 44 percent for Polis and 33 percent for Stapleton, but 15 percent told pollsters they were still undecided.

As the debates began, experts on a panel at the University of Denver two weeks ago said Stapleton would need to use the contests to define Polis as unfit for the Republican to make up ground in the final weeks.