I took the opportunity last night to attend the Second Congressional District Democratic Candidate Debate at the Thornhill Branch of the County Library.  It was a great event that featured some very thoughtful questions from the audience and insightful answers from the four candidates present – Byron DeLear, Mike Garman, Bill Haas and David Pentland.

Here are my impressions from the evening.  I plan on dealing in positives – I’m not going to dwell on negatives, few as they were.  These opinions are mine and mine alone – please feel free to disagree and provide your own.  (Full disclosure:  I have nothing to disclose – I do not personally know, nor do I volunteer for any of these candidates – yet!)

First and foremost – Kudos to the League of Women Voters for sponsoring the debate!  They did an excellent job of organizing the event, distilling the many questions submitted by the audience and in keeping the proceedings on track.  

Next – I can’t remember who originally described this year’s crop of Democratic challengers as an “embarrassment of riches”, but that was the phrase that kept popping into my head as I listened to these four gentlemen weigh in on a variety of topics.  We have a very strong field to choose from – intelligent, passionate, witty, personable – and whoever emerges from the August 5th primary will be in a good position to beat Todd Akin in November.

David Pentland struck me as being a very practical and experienced local politician.  He is also no-nonsense and gave strong answers on creating technology and health care jobs here in the 2nd District and on reforming bankruptcy laws.

Bill Haas was probably the wittiest candidate in the group, eliciting the most chuckles from the audience.  He seemed to be speaking from the heart and wasn’t afraid to go “off script”.  Haas had some really good talking points and probably had some of the most creative thoughts during the evening.  His slogan about how “Todd Akin denied health care to 5000 children in our district by voting to sustain Bush’s veto of S-CHIP” is a keeper.

Mike Garman had a very good command of the health care and education issues.  He has a very straightforward delivery and doesn’t waste words.  His response to the question on the House version of the FISA amendment and telecom immunity was succinct and unequivocal (he would have voted against it whether he was in the House or Senate – are you listening Claire?).  My guess is that he is the kind of guy that does very well in a small group setting and in canvassing situations – he impressed me as being no-nonsense and he isn’t afraid to tell you if he doesn’t know the answer to something, as he did once last night.

Byron DeLear seemed to be the most prepared and polished debater last night.  He had a good command of a wide variety of issues and was very articulate in expressing his positions.  He came across as very strong on foreign policy and energy issues.  He impressed me as being a thoughtful, serious, confident candidate.  He seems like he was born for this job (in fact that was one of his closing statements).  He is very focused on beating Todd Akin.  

In fact, none of these guys pulled any punches when talking about Akin.  The best story of the evening was when Mike Garman recounted his conversations with voters while canvassing.  He starts by asking the voter whether they are happy with what the Bush Administration has done to this country.  When their eyes drop and they concede that they are not happy, he asks them why on Earth they would vote for Todd Akin, who has voted in lockstep with Bush 97.5% of the time.  

Whichever candidate wins the August 5th primary, we will have probably the best chance that we’ve had in a while of retaking this district.  My only hope is that when the primary is over, the other candidates will come together and bring their wealth of respective talents to help the primary winner.  It would be a shame to see this “embarrassment of riches” go to waste.