ew Hampshire's presidential primary tradition of many candidate debates is being upheld in the state's gubernatorial race by the Republicans much better than the Democrats. When voters make their primary selections Tuesday, they will have seen far more of the three contenders on the GOP side than of the two Democratic candidates.
Incumbent Democratic Governor Jeanne Shaheen is to blame for this. Like many frontrunners, she wanted as little exposure for her lesser-known opponent as possible and agreed to just one debate with state Senator Mark Fernald. Fernald and all the candidates on Tuesday's ballot had other problems as well in getting public attention: They had to contend for front-page space with the Supreme Court scandal and then with Jenna Lewis, the ''Survivor'' also-ran from New Hampshire.
In both primaries, the dominant issue has been how to finance public education in a way that raises enough money and meets the town-by-town fairness standard of the state Supreme Court's decision in the Claremont case. Both Fernald and one of the Republicans, state Senator Jim Squires, prefer establishing a state income tax to any version of the current statewide property tax, with its cumbersome system of ''donor'' and ''receiver'' towns.
Shaheen has in the past taken ''the pledge'' not to favor any broad-based state tax, but this year said she would make no such promise while a special commission she appointed is looking into options. Conveniently for her, that commission will not report until well after the November election. If income-tax supporter Fernald gets a sizable vote Tuesday, it will be a barometer of Democrats' impatience with Shaheen on school funding.
On the Republican side, all of Squires' opponents would keep some form of statewide property tax, if not necessarily the current version, which is failing to raise as much money as the state needs. Squires opts for the income tax on the grounds that it is related to citizens' ability to pay, would grow with the state's economy, and reflects his belief that education is a state and not just a town responsibility.
While these views put him at odds with many GOP faithful, Squires contends that it is only a moderate Republican like him who has a chance against Shaheen, the likely Democratic winner. Shaheen easily defeated the two more orthodox conservatives the GOP has put up against her in the past.
But opinion polls indicate Squires lags behind the frontrunner, former US Senator Gordon Humphrey, who has dug deeply into personal funds to finance his campaign. If the final is between Humphrey and Shaheen, it will be incumbent upon her to make herself available for more debates than in the primary. Without such a thorough airing of the school-finance issue, any recommendation from the special commission is likely to fall into a public-opinion vacuum. The election will be a missed opportunity if it does not at least prepare the state for the difficult decisions that lie ahead.
