(CNN) -- There's one thing Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul and his Democratic opponent Jack Conway have in common: They're both finished talking about "Aqua Buddha." Conway's controversial attack ad paralyzed both campaigns this week. The spot accuses Paul of once belonging to a group that mocked religion in his college days at Baylor University. The ad features a claim from an anonymous woman who told The Washington Post and GQ magazine that Paul's group forced her to pray to a false idol named Aqua Buddha. At a news conference at the Atlas Machine and Supply factory outside of Louisville, Kentucky, Paul signed a pledge to repeal the estate tax, dubbed the "death tax" by conservatives. But most of the questions from reporters were focused on the Aqua Buddha controversy.
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NEW: Rand Paul says he'll take part in a Monday night debate that he'd threatened to pull out of
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Jack Conway's ad accuses Paul of once belonging to a group that mocked religion
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Paul says that Conway should be ashamed and that he's never been un-Christian
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Conway says he'll run more issue-oriented spots but defends the "Aqua Buddha" ad
@placeholder has granted few national media interviews since he won the Republican primary in Kentucky earlier this year.