Congressman Dave Reichert and challenger Darcy Burner debated last night in Bellevue. Unfortunately I was not able to attend so will watch via TVW, which will air it tonight at 7, again tomorrow, and will also have streaming media available.

Here's a round up of the coverage, though.

No surprise or real disagreement of the theme of the night: Reichert focuses on experience and qualifications, Burner focuses on Reichert as George Bush loyalist.

From the Seattle Times:

"George Bush is taking this country in the wrong direction and this congressman and this Congress will never stand up to him, but I will," Burner said.

In his closing remarks, Reichert raised his voice and listed his credentials as an Air Force reservist, sheriff and congressman who keeps an open mind. He told Burner: "You're going to have to come from behind the bushes and understand that I'm your opponent."

The audience seemed to tilt Burner's way, according to most of the coverage, including The News Tribune:

In his concluding remarks, Reichert mentioned his experience as King County sheriff tracking down Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer who admitted killing 48 women. Some in the audience groaned and laughed.

"It's not comical to the victims and their families," Reichert said to a silenced crowd at the Meydenbauer Center.

The PI was alone in calling the debate "mean-spirited." (They're so sensitive there.)

The King County Journal summed up the debate this way:

As he did throughout the debate in small doses, Reichert in his closing statement reminded the crowd that he has been a public servant for 35 years, including more than three decades as a police officer.

"This is what I have under my belt," he said.

Still, Burner seemed more at ease than Reichert with the debate format and at one point Reichert opted not to answer a question about media ownership because he said he wasn't familiar with the issue.

Looking at the blogs this morning, my first question is where are the conservatives following this race? If someone has seen something out there please send it my way.

At DailyKos, a local diarist applauded Burner's performance:

She was detailed, forceful, and made many powerful points. She backed up what she said very well. Reichert, on the other hand, seemed to lack substance and stumbled quite often. He did not use all his time on many questions.

Be sure to read the comments, as well, though. Some interesting observations from Burner supporters, including these:

• Reichert was more natural and relaxed during the debate, I thought; he was more comfortable directly addressing the moderator and panelists. Darcy felt a little too scripted and her answers seemed more rehearsed than Dave's.

• Darcy had a slow start in general; the panelists lofted a few nice fat softballs over the plate for her that I didn't think she took full advantage of. By the end of the debate she was definitely hitting them into the bleachers, though.

• The jaw-dropping moment of the night for me was when Reichert faced a question about the FCC and the concentration of media ownership and answered "That's not really one of my areas of expertise, so I'm going to pass on that one."

And what did it look like to an outsider? One young woman attended with her boyfriend and his parents and didn't know what to expect from Burner and Reichert's first big event.

They are both running for the 8th District seat (which apparently I'm in), and as I'm trying to become a more informed voter, we all thought it would be a very interesting evening. We were not disappointed!

...

There were two cringe-worthy moments for me, the first being when a question was asked about the country's current strategy in Iraq. Burner said basically that we should leave after making sure the Iraqis were taken care of, which is soon, and Reichert started with, "First off, we were attacked — " but was quickly drowned out by boos and jeers from the crowd, including one from Matt's dad who yelled, "Not by Iraq!!"