In what may be their only televised debate before the Nov. 7 election, Gov. Linda Lingle and challenger Randall Iwase will face off tonight in a one-hour event that two stations will broadcast live and two others will show tomorrow.

Lingle and Iwase will be asked a range of questions formulated by six newspaper and television journalists, and will also directly question each other, said program producer Wally Zimmerman.

"Our hope is that the reporters will cover as broad a spectrum of issues as possible within one hour," he said.

Lingle, a former mayor of Maui County who four years ago became Hawai'i's first Republican governor since 1962, is widely seen as the front-runner in a race that has attracted limited attention so far.

She is expected to tout her administration's first-term accomplishments and to promote a theme of moving forward with positive change.

Iwase, a Democrat and former state senator who's been out of elective office for six years, stepped down as chairman of the state Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board to challenge Lingle.

He is expected to aggressively criticize Lingle's record and that of Republican President Bush, especially regarding public education, while painting himself as an underdog and champion of the average person.

Lingle said she's looking forward to tonight's debate and is preparing by reviewing Iwase's record and her own achievements, as well as "mistakes that we've made that could be jumped on by my opponent."

Asked how she would handle an attempt to link her with Bush, Lingle said she'll repeat what she's said in the past: that the president has done some "great things" for Hawai'i, such as designating the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a national monument.

But she said she is disappointed that Bush did not support the Native Hawaiian recognition bill sponsored by Democratic U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, which she said she believes in "very strongly."

"Overall, having a relationship has helped our state," Lingle said of her dealings with Bush.

Iwase yesterday blasted Lingle and Bush over the No Child Left Behind Act, a federal law that sets specific goals for student test scores, but which many educators say is not backed up with sufficient money to comply.

"When President Bush cut federal funding for education, Gov. Lingle failed to take action," Iwase said after accepting the endorsement of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association.

Iwase noted that he and his wife, Jan Amemiya, attended public schools, and that Amemiya is principal of a public elementary school in Wahiawa.

"We know the challenges of the classroom, the funding issues at the Legislature and the unreasonable demands of the Bush administration," Iwase said.

Lingle charged that HSTA had "violated" its endorsement process by choosing to back Iwase without taking a vote of union members.

HSTA spokeswoman Danielle Lum said the union's elected 31-member board decided to waive a rank-and-file vote in order to make the endorsement more quickly and give Iwase more time to make use of it.

"To have the maximum impact on the campaign and help Iwase achieve victory, we needed to come out of the gate running," Lum said.

The Lingle camp began criticizing the endorsement Wednesday, before HSTA had publicly announced it. The HSTA board had agreed on Saturday to back Iwase, but an announcement had been planned for later in the week.

Lingle said she and Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona had participated in a long, videotaped interview with the union because they believed it would be shown to teachers, who could then vote on who they believed could do the best job.

The HSTA board's policy is to recommend an endorsement to the union's members and allow them to affirm or reject it, but none has been rejected since the process was created six years ago, Lum said.

A few teachers have inquired about the waived vote, but there have been no widespread objections, she said.

"Once it's explained to them, they understand it's not something we were trying to do to get around them or pull the wool over their eyes," Lum said.

Tonight's debate will be divided into three segments. Reporters will ask questions during two, and the candidates will directly question each other in another, Zimmerman said.

The Hawai'i chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is sponsoring the debate, Bright Light Marketing is producing it and Hawai'i's four network TV affiliates are splitting the cost, Zimmerman said. The event will be broadcast from the KITV 4 studio on South King Street.

Journalists posing questions will be Richard Borreca, Honolulu Star-Bulletin; Jerry Burris, Honolulu Advertiser; Keoki Kerr, KITV 4; Stacy Loe, KGMB 9; Darren Pai, KHNL 8; and Leslie Wilcox, KHON 2. Professor Gerald Kato, chairman of the University of Hawai'i School of Communications, will moderate.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com.