What an odd year. If West Virginia and California have Republicans down, they can always look to . . . Hawaii:

With a new public poll indicating a dead heat in the race for governor, candidates Neil Abercrombie and James “Duke” Aiona faced off on public television last night in the latest of a series of public debates.

The candidates agreed for the most part on a governor-appointed Board of Education and disagreed on the viability of using federal dollars to stimulate the local economy.

Host Dan Boylan moderated the 45-minute exchange on PBS Hawaii’s “Insights” program.

While the debate itself yielded little in the way of new insight about Abercrombie and Aiona’s positions, a palpable testiness between them seemed to reflect the weight of a new Rasmussen Reports poll that showed Abercrombie leading Aiona by just two percentage points (49-47) in a survey of 500 likely voters.

The poll was conducted Wednesday by Pulse Opinion Research. It had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

A Star-Advertiser/Hawaii News Now poll conducted in August, before the primary election, showed Abercrombie with a 54-37 advantage over Aiona.

Book ‘em, Duke-o.