Going into tonight's first post-primary gubenatorial debate, answers to a couple of questions posed in the comments.

I'm OK with Deval Patrick winning the Democratic primary, even though I voted for Gabrieli. While I think he's a little too much style over substance, Patrick has managed to energize a fair segment of voters, including many who are new or newly-returned to the process. He's pretty solidly to the left, in favor of a variety of programs current and new, which when coupled with the vagueness makes it easier to hang the tired "tax and spend" label on him. I do think he's good enough on the stump - and backed by enough prominent Democrats - to get over this to some extent. Were the election held today, I'd likely vote for him.

Though looming in the background is Christy Mihos, a former Republican who is best known in these parts as the owner of the Christy's chain of convenience stores (most of which he's sold off to 7-11, though he kept about a dozen on the Cape). He was also a member of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and managed to annoy Jane Swift enough so that she fired him. He sued, saying the governor didn't have that authority, and won. He later settled a lawsuit saying his First Amendment rights had been violated.

Expect this experience to come up a lot, especially on matters related to the Big Dig and a recent report on the Authority's insolvency. Mihos is also pushing something called Proposition 1, where 40 percent of income tax revenue would be returned to cities and towns in local aid. He's run some ads on this of late, pointing out how much selected cities and towns will get back under his plan.
It will be interesting to hear how he plans to do this while also trying to fund a major health insurance initiative.

Mihos will appeal to the big group of people in the middle who've been turning out for the Republicans of late, or at least that's the conventional wisdom. I've seen poll numbers from late last week that put Mihos at the 5 to 9 percent range. We'll see if tonight's performance, and his recent ad buy, will push that up.