Please Be There Early.

WVIT sponsors the first televised Democratic gubernatorial debate of the primary season tonight at 7 p.m.  Debate organizers have asked the two participants, party-endorsed nominee Dan Malloy and challenger Ned Lamont, to arrive an hour before the proceedings begin.  Lamont, citing traffic, was absent in the spring when the station broadcast a debate among the 6 candidates seeking their party’s nomination.

The format of 60 second answers and 30 second rebuttals means that the candidates will be asked a lot of questions in the hourlong event.  Don’t look for any knockouts.  Lamont is far enough ahead in the polls that he doesn’t need to draw attention to Malloy.  The former Stamford mayor, with 7 weeks until primary day, wants to re-introduce himself to Democratic voters.  Both candidates have had plenty of rehearsals in the scores of small forums they’ve attended in the run-up to the party convention last month.

Lamont makes frequent reference to his experience in business.  Malloy’s delivery is crisper and draws on his successes leading Stamford for 14 years.

The format poses the danger is that with so many questions asked to fill the hour, one or two could wander into the land of quirky questions, always a hazard for candidates who’ve haven’t had much opportunity for spontaneity in their exchanges.