Adequate political coverage debatable

That’s it? The Aug. 9 primary election is less than a month away, but the televised debating for Hawaii’s top job is over before it barely began.

The Democratic race for governor between incumbent Neil Abercrombie and state Sen. David Ige has been decidely low-key. While their last (and just second) televised debate on Thursday night was feisty at moments, it largely gave the glib Abercrombie free talk time and didn’t shine much light on Ige’s own vision for Hawaii.

That means voters will need to make more of an effort to learn about the candidates. Upcoming gubernatorial forums presented by AARP are July 28 in Hilo, July 29 in Kona (same day as a Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce forum), and Aug. 2 in Honolulu.

As for the hotly contested U.S. Senate race between incumbent Brian Schatz and U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, there are two upcoming televised debates: Tuesday night on KHON, and Thursday night on Hawaii News Now, co-sponsored by the Star-Advertiser.