Strategic Attacks

Roosevelt's strategic attacks on Weld's record were not surprising, considering the similarity between the candidates' platforms.

Weld and Roosevelt both favor welfare reform and education reform. They both promise to get tough on crime and to bring more jobs to the state.

And Roosevelt, unlike most Democrats, supports the death penalty, while Weld, unlike many Republicans, supports abortion rights.

Roosevelt accused Weld of a variety of misdeeds, from corrupt dealings on the Central Artery Project to his failure to come through on his 1990 promises. But to each attack, Weld responded nonchalantly.

Members of the audience said Roosevelt was the better debater.

"I did sense that Mark Roosevelt was a little nervous at the beginning," said David F. Kennedy, of Hull, Mass. "But Roosevelt was the pit bull of the debate."

"{Weld} doesn't have a lot up there to talk about," said Westford resident Gus Bickford, adding that Weld was often "slow on the uptake."

"He can't talk about crime because the fact is there are less police than there were four years ago," Bickford said.

John Menard, chair of the state Democratic party, said Weld's habit of succumbing to public opinion was the most important issue raised in the debate.

"You can't run the governor's office by polling," Menard said. "It's unfair to the people of Massachusetts to prey on their fears."

But though most agreed that Roosevelt had done the better debating, not all spectators were convinced that the newcomer had walked away with the victory over an incumbent who never lost his cool