Democratic Congressional candidate Steve Harrison (NY13th CD Staten Island, Southwest Brooklyn), who in 2006 received a higher percentage of the vote than any Democrat ever under the district’s current configuration, is challenging September 9th primary opponent Councilman Michael McMahon to five debates, 3 in Staten Island and two in Brooklyn. The primary winner faces the eventual Republican nominee in November to replace incumbent Vito Fossella, who is not seeking re-election because of his recent scandals.

Harrison wants to begin debating his opponent as soon as possible.

"I'm ready to go today" said Harrison, "Mike told the Staten Advance that he wants to discuss the issues. So let's discuss. I've been discussing Congressional issues for over two years. have a website, campaign team and money in the bank. It will be interesting to hear what Mike says about National issues and why he voted for congestion pricing and the largest property tax hike in history and why, as a Democrat, he's vying for the Conservative party endorsement."

Harrison soundly defeated Fossella, who ran on the Republican and Conservative lines ,all five times they debated in 2006.

Advice for all you traders in political futures, based on first impressions:

Giuliani: Sell. He seriously bungled the abortion questions, and hardly got a chance to talk about how he Totally Ruled on 9/11. There's no reason to think that this won't be a pattern going forward. On the positive side, he didn't totally blow the parts about immigration -- though he didn't get much chance to go into it. Overall, the early reviews are not kind.

McCain: Sell. At least until he figures out how to project passion as opposed to cartoonish, rehearsed rants.

Romney: Hold. He was overly-slick and overly-calculated, but those are qualities that will work better for him over the long run than they do when compressed into a single debate.

If you're interested in running commentary on what will be the carnage (one hopes) of tonight's Republican presidential debate, I'll be liveblogging the thing over at alien & sedition, your source for slack-jawed wonderment at the spectacle of conservative movement politics. I'll also post a wrap-up here at TDG.

Meanwhile, the Times's blog The Caucus has a pretty good viewer's guide to the debate. They're also taking bets on the number of times Ronald Reagan will be invoked. Their guess: 40 -- but 50 if you count Chris Matthews's contributions.

Let's see, 90 minute debate, 10 Republicans on stage ... I'll say 45 times. What do you think?

The fun begins tonight at 8:00 pm. Coverage is on MSNBC.