Most Republican presidential candidates were in Las Vegas Tuesday night for the CNN debate. But what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas when you're running for president, and what's said in a presidential debate gets dissected before you get out of the auditorium at the Venetian and walk past the blackjack tables.

It was a pretty feisty debate, which opened with most candidates piling on Herman Cain, who is rising in the polls, and offered some spirited exchanges between Mitt Romney and Rich Perry. Hard to say who the winner was, but it's pretty clear the loser was moderator Anderson Cooper, who lost control of the debate at several points when the candidates tried talking over each other and wouldn't stop.

“I thought Republicans followed the rules,” he complained at one point. Get a grip, Anderson. Anyone who occupies the Oval Office doesn't have to play by the rules…a president gets to make  his or her own rules.

FactCheck.org has a rundown of some of the main points that came up in the debate, including Cain's 9-9-9 plan and Romney's Massachusetts health care plan.

John Ahern on 10-13-2010

John Driscoll 10-13-2010

Tonight’s annual televised Chase Youth Commission debate will have a noticeably absent candidate: John Ahern.

While Ahern has appeared with his opponent, incumbent Democratic State Rep. John Driscoll, at several other forums, Ahern also missed last month’s debate sponsored by the League of Woman Voters of the Spokane Area. That event was the only other televised forum that would have featured the two side-by-side. 

For the first time in decades, there will be no debate or face-to-face forum for candidates in Eastern Washington’s 5th Congressional District race because the incumbent is refusing to participate.

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ campaign said Wednesday she will not debate Democratic challenger Daryl Romeyn “due to scheduling constraints.”

McMorris Rodgers, seeking her fourth term in the House where she holds a GOP leadership position, declined this week to participate in the one proposed televised debate, a one-hour question-and-answer session next week on KSPS-TV and KXLY-TV, after more than a month of discussions.

She also turned down other forums with Romeyn, a novice candidate whom she outpolled nearly 5-to-1 in the primary and holds a 100-to-1 advantage in campaign contributions in the latest spending reports.

“I don’t think that’s the way American democracy works,” Romeyn, a former television weatherman and outdoor reporter, said. “They must feel putting her out there (in a debate) would do more damage than holding her back.”

McMorris Rodgers said Wednesday  her campaign waited to commit to debates because Romeyn was slow to file reports with the Federal Election Commission after the primary and “we weren’t sure how serious of a candidate he was.” The campaign later tried to identify some dates but couldn’t fit them in with other scheduled events…to read more, click here to go inside the blog.

The first — and so far only — televised debate to be scheduled in Washington’s U.S. Senate race takes place in Spokane next week.

Live, from the South Hill, it’s Thursday night.(That is to say, it will be at KSPS-TV Channel 7’s studio, and it will air live, starting at 7 p.m.)

Sponsors of the debate, KSPS and KXLY-TV, are soliciting questions from the public to throw into the mix of things the candidates will be asked. Some of the details of the format aren’t set yet, so it’s unclear how many questions will come from the public and how many from a panel of journalists.

But if you have a question you’re dying to ask one or both of them, you can send it in by clicking here.

Another televised debate has tentatively been planned for Seattle on KOMO-TV, but the details of that remain uncertain.

Ballots in Spokane County will start arriving in the mail on Thursday.

For those still wondering how the candidates stand on the issues, here’s a link where you can hear three Spokane City Council debates in full or broken into important topics by our very capable Web sage, Andrew Zahler. The hour-long debates were taped in The Spokesman-Review’s radio studio last month.

A different City Council debate will air 7 p.m. Thursday on KSPS.

Chances to catch the candidates, and the surrogates for some of the ballot issues, in the Nov. 3 election are going to be popping up with increasing frequency. The newspaper and the Spin Control Web site will try to keep up with them as they come in, but here’s some we know about right now:
Tuesday evening: Spokane Area League of Women Voters forum for Spokane Public School Board seats, Municipal Court, State House District 9, I-1033 and Ref. 71., starts 5:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Spokane City Hall.
Thursday morning: Candidates for all three Spokane City Council seats debate at a Greater Spokane Inc. starts 7:30 a.m., 801 W. Riverside
Thursday evening: Candidates for Northeast Spokane Council Seat 1, Municipal Court race between Tracy Staab and Bryan Whitaker, supporters and opponents of city Prop. 4, starts 6:30 p.m. at the restored Masonic Temple, Market Street at Diamond Avenue.
Oct. 5: Spokane Area League of Women Voters forum for Spokane City Council candidates, Fire Bond, other city ballot issues, starts 5:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers.