There was tough competition for politically-oriented eyeballs during last night’s KATU televised Washington Governor’s debate at WSU between AG Rob McKenna and former Congressman Jay Inslee. They were competing with the Republican National Convention featuring Condi Rice’s tour de force, NM Governor Susana Martinez’s star turn, and Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s denuniciation of Obamanomics and promise that, “we can change this!”

McKenna parried Inslee’s poll tested and tired question about releasing more tax returns; Inslee said that we must ‘find a way’ to build CRC with lightrail, apparently unaware that the problem with the bridge is that is DOES include it. From KATU:

Inslee…emphasized that the residents of Clark County should be fully involved in the discussion about building the bridge and…said that the bridge won’t be built until the community figures out how to include light rail as part of the bridge.

“This is a reality, and it is important for those who want to lead this state to say that, because if we are going to depend on these hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government, we are going to have to have leadership that will make sure that we get this light rail built. I will do that,” he said.

 CLUNK.

But McKenna said it’s not clear whether commuters from the area want light rail. He said the C-Tran vote in November will “tell us a lot.”

 KATU asked  who won the debate and declared McKenna won on both style and substance. We didn’t need a poll for that.

I’ll be culling through these today but wanted to give you a chance to do so as well. Isn’t it great of KATU to have broadcast this event live? Thank you!

KATU CARRIED THE DEBATE LIVE. HERE IS THE DEBATE IN ITS ENTIRETY: