Regarding the first congressional debate , I suspect that Democrats Helene Schneider and Salud Carbajal sounded "remarkably similar on nearly every issue" because the prescribed four questions (not given in your article) may have allowed for considerable vagueness. The levity of the piece, which provided no clues to a voter hoping to differentiate between the two Democrats, seems to point to a lightness in the debate itself.
One question that has not been brought up to my knowledge is that of war and peace; our members of Congress certainly don't deal exclusively with domestic issues. If future debates continue to ignore foreign affairs, I would suggest that your coverage draw attention to this significant omission.