It's a two-man race

CALL LAST NIGHT a clear loss for Attorney General Tom Reilly and a narrow win for Deval Patrick.

Chris Gabrieli seemed smart and substantive -- if not yet quite convincing as a potential CEO for the state.

Let's start with Reilly. He came into last night's debate knowing he had to shake something up -- but it was the dynamic, not the audience, that needed to be shaken.

Already perceived as fading in this race, Reilly is facing renewed doubts about his competence and candor after a Globe story about his campaign having a report outlining state Representative Marie St. Fleur's financial problems before Reilly chose her as his (short-lived) running mate.

Grim and angry, Reilly was in full prosecutorial mode from moment one, accusing Gabrieli's campaign of leaking that report to the Globe for a front-page story yesterday. But that was hardly the half of it. Before the evening was through, Reilly had gone after Patrick for a 1996 tax lien the IRS had imposed on him and his wife -- an issue long resolved -- as well as his more problematic paid service of the board of Ameriquest, the subprime lender.

And, just for good measure, he took a slap at both Gabrieli and Patrick for making millions in the private sector even as he himself has labored long in the vineyard of government service.

This went well beyond scrappy and into off-putting. Reilly looked desperate.

The AG, who has been stressing that he's a regular guy from an average street with everyday values running against a field of millionaires, needed to reassure voters about his judgment while connecting his background to policy differences that matter to voters. He neglected the first task, and what progress he made toward the second was overshadowed by his no-holds-barred attack style.

It was harder to choose between Gabrieli and Patrick.

Gabrieli seemed more knowledgeable on the details of policy. One saw that when it came to details of the state's economy or how to best use public funds to encourage stem cell research. And his explanation for -- and defense of -- his phased-in tax rollback plan was a persuasive combination of policy and politics.

He speaks well to late-deciders, who tend to want a less partisan approach to solving problems. But to date, with his expensive ad-driven campaign, he exists like one of those cerebral, disembodied hologram figures that shimmered on screen with greetings or warnings whenever the Starship Enterprise entered an unexplored quadrant of the universe.

He's simply less forceful or compelling a presence than Patrick, and that, too, came through.

On this night, Patrick defended himself well against Reilly's jabs, while speaking convincingly about his own priorities. In general, Patrick needs to move beyond the politics of hope and inspiration to speak about practical specifics that resonate with late-deciders who aren't necessarily drawn to a charisma-driven quest and who don't see Massachusetts schools as broken or the state on its knees, as the liberal favorite does.

He did not knock the electability question out of the park; insisting you shouldn't be labeled doesn't mean you can't be. Still, in talking about his plans for the economy and nurturing business, plus his call for 1,000 new police officers, Patrick made some important progress in rounding out his profile.

Overall result: This now looks increasingly like a two-man race between Gabrieli and Patrick.

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.