RALEIGH – There always seems to be something obstructing the public’s view of the U.S. Senate race between Erskine Bowles and Richard Burr.

The match-up was settled many months ago. Both candidates have been touring the state, raising gobs of money, and lately spending it on ads. But I just don’t think that the public has been paying much attention. Other things keep getting in the way.

At the first and only broadcast debate between the two men, Monday night, it happened again. Just as Bowles and Burr began mixing it up, a tornado warning for Wake County scrolled across the screen for many television viewers, then yielded to a full-fledged announcement that blotted out the debate on both TV and radio for a while. This isn’t the first time, and I’m not just referring to the recent spate of tropical weather.

First there was the 2003-2004 presidential primary season, in which outgoing Sen. John Edwards played a prominent role. North Carolina hasn’t boasted a competitive candidacy for president in a long, long time. After losing to Kerry, Edwards spent some weeks campaigning for the vice presidency, while denying it, and then got the call. More bright lights beamed his way, while Bowles and Burr stayed in the shadows.

Then the Kerry-Bush race began, got nasty, and yanked the political debate up to Boston, down to New York City, and out to Midwestern battlegrounds. The insurgency in Iraq made headlines. Economic growth, fitful but generally positive, did, too. Again, Bowles and Burr were sidelined.

Finally, in September, Burr’s campaign really got going. Certainly his political team believed that the public had been distracted, and that his sizable stash of funds needed to be held in reserve until this month. His ads began to remind voters of Bowles’ close connection to Bill Clinton, a link that the Democrat – who hasn’t sounded much like a Democrat – has tried doggedly to downplay.

Monday’s debate between these two men illustrated several factors. First, both are able, serious people who have brought credit to themselves and the state during a substantive campaign. Second, Richard Burr is a far, far better candidate. He looks comfortable with himself, his positions, and the camera, to which he talked directly for much of the hour. Bowles gesticulated wildly, didn’t effectively acknowledge the audience that mattered (the viewers at home), and said “I have a detailed plan” so often that I started to have uncomfortable Perotista flashbacks.

But third, Bowles has a good team of advisors. They, and Bowles, have positioned him well for the race. He isn’t making Kerry’s mistake of running against the war (that won’t sell in North Carolina, at least). He isn’t indulging the bizarre phobias of a progressively shrill Democratic Left. He sounds like a problem-solver and a centrist. So does Burr, actually, though perhaps a bit more center-right than centrist.

Finally, both candidates are mistakenly blaming North Carolina’s economic woes on “unfair” trade agreements, as if protectionism was any way to foster the growth of a modern international economy. That part of the debate was depressing, as was the usual “I’ll spend more tax money than you will on stuff” one-upmanship that fuels government’s inexorable growth.

If the internal polls I’m hearing about are accurate, Burr’s numbers have been moving up in the past couple of weeks, closing the race to within three to five points. If so, Monday’s debate may tighten it up a bit more, as I’d give the edge to Burr as the more effective communicator. For the first time, state voters are trying these guys on for size. We’ll discover soon who they think looks best in the mirror.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.