ProJo's Achorn being lintrolled prior to debate.

In a 90-minute debate last night between Democratic congressional primary contenders, incumbent David Cicilline offered reasoned responses and displayed a strong grasp of policy, while Anthony Gemma spent the evening dragging the conversation back to allegations of corruption and offered little in the way of policy differences. Moderated by WPRI's Tim White, it featured questions from WRPRI's Ted Nesi and ProJo right-winger Ed Achorn (as well as a few from e-mail and Twitter).

The auditorium at Rhode Island College seemed to be split about 50-50 between supporters of the two candidates, and the proceedings were frequently interrupted by catcalls and boos (although I do think the Gemma supporters may have had a slight edge on this important metric.)

You can read my live-tweeting from the event on Twitter.

Post-debate analysis seems consistent with what was observable on site, with a consensus that Gemma failed to draw crisp distinctions and that Cicilline generally appeared well-informed and on message.

WRNI's Scott MacKay judged that Gemma failed to make his case: "In a debate against an incumbent, a challenger’s task is always to focus on why that office holder ought to be turned out of his job. Remarkably, Gemma had no substantive reasons, except for his wild voter fraud haymakers and criticism of Cicilline’s stewardship during his last year as Providence mayor in 2010."

Ted Nesi's analysis echoed this point: "Gemma couldn’t point to a single one of the 1,697 votes Cicilline has cast in Congress where he would have voted the other way – going so far as to tell voters the two Democrats are “very similar” and would vote the same way on nearly every aspect of federal policy."

It was a question of who stuck to questions of substance for RI Future's Sam Howard: "And that’s ultimately where the candidates differed. Mr. Cicilline returned numerous times to arguing against the Republican plan for America. Mr. Gemma remained focused on voter fraud and conspiratorial election-rigging, neglecting the Providence attack line that really worries voters."

You can visit WPRI.com to watch the whole thing here.

Full disclosure: My house doesn't have an attic.