Sunday, Oct. 22, 2006 | 8:05 a.m.
During an hour-long debate Thursday evening, Tessa Hafen came of age as a congressional candidate. The question is whether enough people saw it (doubtful) and whether it is too late (maybe).
Hafen, a first-time candidate who recently turned 30, has seemed unsure and even a little awkward in previous forums. She also has appeared a little forced in her TV ads, almost as if someone were pulling a string behind her to make her smile on cue.
But not Thursday. It's more than she was poised and seemingly at ease. In the 20 years I have covered politics, I'm not sure I have ever seen someone so well-prepared for a debate - not just ready to talk in depth about issues but ready to parry and pounce after her opponent, Rep. Jon Porter, spoke. It was almost like seeing a different person.
And Porter was far from subpar. He has become a better candidate every cycle and was engaged and eager to repeat the messages he needed to impart - he's not a Bush rubber stamp, Hafen is not ready for prime time and she is against tort reform, tax cuts and the Patriot Act.
Ironically, Hafen was least effective during the debate's bookends - the opening and closing statements, which were scripted. She was much better when she employed her obvious preparation and speaking skills in extemporaneous answers. Whether it was talking about health care for children and the rise in childhood asthma or trying to bolster her immigration bona fides or decrying the Medicare doughnut hole, she sounded congressional. And she managed to pull off a few zingers, including, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a Congress with a list of accomplishments longer than its list of scandals?"
Porter was facile with the talking points he has used for three cycles now, with the mainstay of his 85-year-old mother being used to illustrate points about prescription drugs and health care, his histrionic abhorrence of partisanship and his feigned shock at some of his opponent's attacks (such as the Democratic boilerplate guilt-by-association attacks on former Rep. Mark Foley).
He also scored some points by continuing to bring up medical liability reform - putative evidence of his so-called Bush fealty, and a measure he and his campaign team know resonates with voters. But his defense of calling Hafen a carpetbagger amounted to a nondefense as he quickly said it wasn't about "the 12 years she's been gone" but about "a unique community with very serious challenges." See, get it? She's not serious enough. Porter said while "I appreciate she wants to run for Congress ... now is not the time." If he could have sidled over and given her a patronizing pat on the head to emphasize the point, he would have.
But Hafen was unfazed and continued to tick off votes Porter has cast and programs she would enact. Practice may not have made perfect, but it was pretty close.
Perhaps the most telling part of the debate was Porter's thoroughly disingenuous defense of his support for the president. He and his campaign must have thought they were pretty clever for coming up with this one: Even though he voted with Bush 80 percent of the time last year - 36 of 47 votes scored by national rating groups - there were more than 650 votes last year, so he really only agreed with Bush about 5 percent of the time.
Now that math is not just fuzzy; it's like giving a kid an algebra test and then changing the variables when you grade it.
The president only cared about a fraction of those votes and Porter knows it. And if he were so proud of the administration, why would Porter be trying to use such absurd math to distance himself?
There is more than anecdotal evidence that Porter maintains a significant lead in this race, probably because of his financial advantage that has produced a barrage of direct mail and ads that have been executed devastatingly well, their cynicism notwithstanding. There are two more televised debates coming up, though, and if Hafen can match her performance on PBS - and enough people see it - this could be close by Nov. 7.
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