We held a debate on Tuesday at the University of Southern Maine with the candidates for U.S. Senate - incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and her Democratic challenger, 1st District U.S. Rep. Tom Allen. The event was sponsored by the Press Herald, News 8 WMTW and Central Maine Newspapers.

It was a bit stressful putting it together, but in the end it went smoothly. The candidates debated 16 questions from panel of reporters, the audience, and the Web. We had dozens more questions ready to go, but there were only so many we could fit in the 60-minute broadcast.

Herbert Hoffman was there and demanded he be included on the stage as an "announced candidate for Senate." He asserted it was his right since the event was being held at a public university. We explained that the sponsors of the event set the ground rules, and while he was welcome to watch the debate or submit a question from the audience, only the candidates who appear on the ballot were invited to participate.

The Collins campaign won the first coin toss, to choose which podium Sen. Collins would stand behind. They chose the podium closest to the moderator, WMTW's Jon Camp. The Allen campaign won the second coin toss for the opening statement, and chose to go last.

I'm pleased to note that we didn't have to "disarm" any candidates like we did at the gubernatorial debate in 2006, when we had to ask independent candidate Phillip Morris NaPier to turn over his sword before taking the stage and sitting next to Gov. John Baldacci.

Anyway, take a look at the video from the event when you get the chance.

We'll be holding another debate on Tuesday, Oct. 28, also at noon, also at USM, for the 1st Congressional District candidates - Democrat Chellie Pingree and Republican Charlie Summers. Like Tuesday's Senate debate, the House event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Press Herald, News 8 WMTW and Central Maine Newspapers.

It's been interesting to watch the chatter on the Web and in our letters columns on the Collins-Edwards story.

What's the story? Well, as everyone knows, John Edwards, the former U.S. senator from North Carolina and Democratic presidential candidate, admitted having an affair while his wife was being treated for cancer, with a woman who later fathered a child that Edwards denies is his.

Typical political sex scandal stuff. It became a local story for us, however, when U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who is running for re-election this year, appeared on a local radio show on Aug. 14 and speculated that Edwards was really the child's father.

As evidenced by today's editorial page, comments and letters continue to pour in on this issue. Many readers either agree with Collins and believe she's merely voicing what most people are thinking. Others use it to contrast her with her Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, by criticizing Collins' record in the Senate. Still others think it wasn't news, or wasn't worth running on Page A1.

I won't debate the story's placement on the page. In terms of whether it was news, though, I think readers have spoken very clearly that it was.

This is only one measure, but at last count, the story had received over 111,000 page views at pressherald.com, and people were still commenting on it a week after the story ran. Meanwhile, an online poll picked up another 6,750 votes. One thing that really drove a lot of traffic was having our story picked up by the Drudge report.

Those are huge numbers when you consider that one of last week's biggest stories, Elbert Aull's Aug. 18 piece about Rabbi Moshe Wilansky's prayer battle with Portland City Hall, had 14,316 page views at last count.

We're planning two political debates this fall with WMTW News 8 and Central Maine Newspapers.

The debates will be held at the Hannaford Lecture Hall at the University of Southern Maine's Portland campus. The U.S. Senate candidates - incumbent Republican Susan Collins and Democratic Rep. Tom Allen - will debate on Tuesday, Oct. 14.

The candidates for the 1st Congressional District - Democrat Chellie Pingree and Republican Charlie Summers - will square off against each other on Tuesday, Oct. 28.

We held a meeting today with the folks at WMTW to talk about the format.

What we're looking at right now is similar to the gubernatorial debate we co-sponsored with Channel 8 in 2006. It'll take place from noon to 1 p.m. and be broadcast live on TV and the Internet. Questions will come from a panel of journalists, the live audience and the Web. The debate will be moderated by one of the WMTW anchors.

The 2006 debate was fast-moving and hit on a lot of topics. Because there were five candidates for governor, we had to cover a lot of ground and make sure everyone got a chance to speak.

(It was also a little surreal because one of the candidates, independent Phillip Morris NaPier, wore a large sword and kilt to the event and had to be disarmed before the State Police would let him sit next to Gov. John Baldacci. Never in a million years did I ever think I'd have to help disarm a political candidate.)

I'm guessing there won't be any swords at the Senate or House debates in October. That said, with only two candidates at each event, there should be plenty of opportunity for give and take.

Keep an eye on pressherald.com and wmtw.com for information about how to submit questions for the candidates.

You’ll be reading plenty of political coverage over the next few weeks, with the June 10 primary just a month away.

On Monday, May 12, we’ll start nine consecutive days of stories about the candidates running for the 1st Congressional District. In this race six Democrats and two Republicans are vying to run in the general election to replace Democratic Rep. Tom Allen, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican.

The stories were written and reported by political writers Kevin Wack and Paul Carrier.

All of the candidates will be featured on Page A1 on a week day, in alphabetical order by party, with the six Democrats running Monday through Saturday, and two Republicans on May 19 & 20. Sandwiched in the middle, on Sunday, May 18, will be a look at voters’ concerns in the 1st District. The stories will also be archived online at www.pressherald.com as they're published in the paper.

Here’s what the schedule looks like:

DEMOCRATS
Monday: Michael Brennan
Tuesday: Adam Cote
Wednesday: Mark Lawrence
Thursday: Steve Meister
Friday: Chellie Pingree
Saturday: Ethan Strimling

May 18: A look at the issues concerning voters in the 1st Congressional District

REPUBLICANS
May 19: Dean Scontras
May 20: Charlie Summers

The GOP caucuses have come and gone, with Mitt Romney winning 52 percent of the vote.

But Maine’s event barely raised a ripple on the national scene, where attention has been focused on the 24 states holding primaries or caucuses today. The only campaigning we saw was a visit from Ron Paul (who placed third in Maine, with 19 percent of the vote) earlier in the week and Romney’s son Tagg who toured the state on Friday and Saturday.

The big question now is what today’s voting will mean for Maine’s Democratic caucuses on Sunday. If Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton remain neck and neck, suddenly Maine’s 34 Democratic delegates could become a greater prize and prompt more candidate visits to the state towards the end of the week.

We’re already hearing of a potential visit by Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama, but that depends on what happens today. Might we see a Clinton or two, given Gov. John Baldacci’s support of the New York senator and her husband, the former president?

Our coverage plan for this weekend is similar to last week’s for the GOP event. We’ll have stories leading up to the caucus, including a list of caucus locations in Thursday’s paper. Also, our Washington, D.C.-based correspondent, Jonathan Kaplan, is flying up here to cover Sunday’s caucus and any campaign stops that materialize later this week.

Hello. I’m back from vacation and ready for an exciting week of politics.

First, thanks to everyone for their comments on Kevin Wack’s three-part series, “Danger behind the wheel: Suspended drivers in Maine.” The response so far has been overwhelming. Kevin’s working on some follow-up stories that you should see in the paper in the next week or so.

Now it’s time to talk about the Maine caucuses. Maine’s Republicans will hold their caucuses Wednesday through Sunday, although most will happen on Saturday. Democrats will caucus on Sunday, Feb. 10.

We’ll have stories starting Thursday and we expect a story on Maine’s GOP winner for Sunday’s paper, as well as similar coverage for the Dems the following weekend. We also ran a comprehensive story on both parties' caucuses in last Sunday's newspaper.

As I write this, the battles for both the Republican and Democratic nominations remain a toss up between John McCain and Mitt Romney on the GOP side, and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Dems. But so far it’s been hard to get a read on the significance of Maine’s caucuses.

On one hand, we hear from political experts who tell us that they won’t have much impact on the national battles for the nomination because most of the delegates and attention are in the larger states, or in the 24 states holding primaries or caucuses next Tuesday, the so-called “Super Tuesday.”

Meanwhile, other experts think Maine could become a factor, particularly if both nominations are still wide open, which could then translate into greater national media attention and candidate visits.

So far it’s anybody’s guess. GOP contender Ron Paul visited the state yesterday, but as of right now, none of the other candidates are scheduled to come here. We’ll keep you posted if that changes.

Last week’s campaign visits by two presidential candidates, Rudy Giuliani for the Republicans and Barack Obama for the Democrats, prompted several discussions here about where to play the stories.