Last night, the three gubernatorial candidates sat down on Twin Cities Public Television’s Almanac for an informal debate (you can watch it here). A few thoughts:

It’s amazing how much Tom Emmer cultivates an adversarial relationship with the media. Asked by Cathy Wurzer to explain how he would cut $6 billion, he testily replied “I’ve already given you some examples,” to which Wurzer calmly explained that not everybody has watched his MPR interviews. I’d like to point out that even in his MPR interviews, he didn’t really give any details.

That actually seems to be Tom Emmer’s favorite new way to avoid talking about his plan, or lack thereof: “I’ve already told you.” Both Cathy Wurzer and Mark Dayton asked him what his plan was, to which he responded “I’ve already told you.” When they pushed back, he offered a few of his typical platitudes about “reforming government.”

I was happy to hear Dayton push back against Emmer’s platitudes. While he said he agreed that we should streamline government, he pointed out that “for the last 20 years, those government bureaucracies have been run by two Republican governors and a wrestler-turned-libertarian.” Emmer has tried to turn the blame onto the legislature, but the fact is that Tim Pawlenty had his way about 98 percent of the time.

I’m pleased with how well Mark Dayton came across in this debate. I like Dayton on the issues, but I worry from time to time how he’ll compare to Tom Emmer on a strictly personal level. On the Almanac couch, though, Dayton came across as both personal and tough. He called the other candidates out when they were speaking in platitudes, 

Tom Horner illustrated the problem the Independence Party has. His sole argument was the same on every IP candidate always offers: These two guys squabbling are more of the same, and it’s not working.” While most voters would agree, that’s not enough to get anyone to vote for you. Dayton, at one point, countered nicely: “We’re going to have 81 more days of this refrain? Maybe we should just tape it, and then we can play it on cue.”