Barrett and Walker square off in first debate on Friday

Democrat Tom Barrett and Republican Scott Walker, the two candidates for governor who have been circling each other for months, will finally get a chance for a direct exchange in the first post-primary debate of the 2010 gubernatorial election on Friday.
The event, hosted by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, will begin at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live from the WTMJ-TV studios in Milwaukee.
The debate follows two separate University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee forums this week.
Appearing at a forum organized by UWM, WUWM and WisPolitics.com on Wednesday, Barrett swiped at Walker, suggesting he was like a high school underclassman treating the state’s economic crisis as a joke.
Walker said Thursday at the same forum that Barrett "seems to have turned from Mr. Nice to Mr. Nasty."
See WisPolitics.com coverage of the Barrett forum: http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=211452.
See WisPolitics coverge of the Walker forum: http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=211683.
Listen to the forums at WUWM here: http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/index.php.
– WisPolitics.com