In Washington state, incumbent Democrat Maria Cantwell faced a more aggressive Mike McGavick last night in their second, and final, debate. Adding to last night's fun was the presence of Libertarian candidate Bruce Guthrie, who recently mortgaged his home to loan his campaign enough money to qualify for the debate. The Seattle PI reports that Guthrie gave an "earnest presentation of his sometimes out-of-the-mainstream views," but he won't be much of a factor in the end.

The latest poll in this race by SurveyUSA (10/13-10/15) showed some slight movement for McGavick, closing the gap from 12 points in September (42-54) to eight points this month (43-51), but the other polls are now three and four weeks old so we'll have to wait and see just how much tightening occurs. The rule is to never say never in politics, but in this particular state in this particular year, with only three weeks left it's very hard to see the incumbent losing.

All the way across the country in New Jersey, Democrat Bob Menendez and Republican Tom Kean, Jr. mixed it up again yesterday on a radio debate. The two clashed on immigration and Iraq but, according to the Star-Ledger, the debate was relatively tame until the last 20 minutes when the moderator allowed the candidates to question each other directly:

That's when the program slid out of control as Menendez and Kean interrupted each other's answers and bandied back and forth such rejoinders as "That's just not true."

Amid the tumult, Menendez pointedly asked whether Kean, if he could go back to the 2004 presidential election, would vote for Bush or Democratic Sen. John Kerry. Kean said, "I've disagreed with this administration," but then acknowledged he would vote for President Bush.

When Kean asked Menendez about corruption allegations and a campaign appearance last week with Democratic state Sen. Wayne Bryant, who faces a federal inquiry into tax-paid jobs he holds outside the Legislature, Menendez lit into his opponent.

"You're campaign has been a campaign of smear," Menendez said. "You smear because you fear. ... You throw out allegations like most people throw out garbage."

Menendez currently leads Kean by 3.5% in the latest RCP Average, though I would expect to see more polls in this race very soon.

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