The final debate in this year's race for governor is in the rearview mirror. What did we learn Tuesday night, and what should Ned Lamont and Bob Stefanowski be most worried about before polls open just six days from now? Should it be:

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Which party can get to 19?

That's the number of Connecticut Senate seats that Republicans or Democrats need to win on Nov. 6 to control the legislature's upper chamber.

Right now, it's an 18-18 split. But a national Republican-funded super PAC is spending large sums of money in an attempt to change that.

In the state House of Representatives, the GOP needs just five more seats to gain the majority for the first time since 1984.

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We can learn a lot from campaign finance reports.

In Connecticut's race for governor, they reveal that the three top contenders, Bob Stefanowski, Ned Lamont, and Oz Griebel, are all dipping deep into their own pockets to fund their campaigns. 

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Two issues continue to dominate this year's race for governor: taxes and the economy.

That notion has been reinforced by the latest Quinnipiac University poll. Of the likely voters surveyed, 31% said the economy was their chief concern, while 26% said it was taxes.

Climate change wasn't even an issue listed in the poll question. It's also been left largely unaddressed by those running for governor this year.

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With the nation transfixed on the revelations pouring out of Washington, D.C., how much remaining brain capacity do voters have for Connecticut's governor's race?

It's undoubtedly hard to compete for attention against news cycles dominated by edge-of-your-seat histrionics that could shape the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court for a generation. So this week we set out to bring state politics back into focus.

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The firestorm in Washington, D.C., over the sexual misconduct charges leveled against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is tearing its way through New Haven too.

Both Kavanaugh and his latest accuser, Deborah Ramirez, attended Yale together in the 1980s. As Ramirez tells it, the lecherous behavior came during a dorm party at the university and was fueled by heavy drinking. 

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This election cycle has been perilous for many Democratic incumbents in Congress. Just look at the primary losses of ten-term U.S. Reps. Michael Capuano and Joseph Crowley next door in Massachusetts and New York.

Yet members of Connecticut's all-Democratic congressional delegation are well on their way to being re-elected. The one exception is U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty who dropped her bid for a third term due to a singular scandal.

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In recent days, Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Stefanowski has ratcheted up the pleas for campaign donations. If more money doesn't come in quickly, he may be forced to curtail his television advertising blitz, Stefanowski's wife warned in an email to supporters.

This week, ahead of the first debate between the two major party candidates Wednesday night, we evaluate how Stefanowski and Democrat Ned Lamont are doing at this critical stage of the race, both financially and otherwise. Will the constant barrage of attack ads, from both sides, continue?

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Connecticut Public Radio, The Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, WFSB Channel 3, the CT Mirror hosted the first gubernatorial debate of the general election at the University of Saint Joseph on September 5, 2018. 

Missed the event? Listen to the audio above

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Should she win the Fifth Congressional District race on Nov. 6, Jahana Hayes would no longer be the only black female from New England elected to Congress. Ayanna Pressley, who toppled 10-term U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in Tuesday's Democratic primary in Massachusetts' 7th District race, would hold that claim too. Unlike for Hayes, there's no Republican opposing Pressley in the general election.

This week, we gauge what Pressley's victory, and other trends suggesting this will be a big year for female candidates, means for Connecticut.

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