WE’VE HEARD a lot about the importance of political experience in the US Senate race, but last night the most notable way that experience manifested itself was in the regular ducking of questions.
Early in the debate, US Representative Michael Capuano, taking a poke at City Year cofounder Alan Khazei’s shoehorn-it-all-in answer about three things he do to save Hanscom and Natick Labs if they were endangered, started this way: “The first thing I’d do is answer your question.’’
Not only did Capuano fail to do so on that query, but later, he repeatedly refused to specify whether he would support health care coverage or licenses for illegal immigrants. That was odd coming from a candidate who styles himself as a blunt guy willing to take on tough issues and ready to speak his mind.
Attorney General Martha Coakley also spent too much time avoiding questions. Asked whether she would support a tax increase to pay for a second stimulus package or pay for it by adding to the debt, Coakley said new revenues would come in as the economy recovered, so she would consider it an investment. Translation: She’d add to the debt.
Give Khazei and businessman Steve Pagliuca credit for at least confronting that thorny issue. Khazei said that once the economy recovered, he would tackle the deficit by returning to the Clinton-era tax rates. Pagliuca talked about raising rates on upper earners as well as hiking the capital gains tax rate.
Bottom line: Capuano and Coakley seemed like two practiced pols intent on minimizing their exposure.
Khazei and Pagliuca ducked some themselves, to be sure. Still, they were more candid overall.
Verdict: It was a good night for the political outsiders.
Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com. 
