After last week's less-than-friendly radio debate between Governor Carcieri and Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty on the Dan Yorke Show, several listeners who phoned in afterward noted that throughout the debate Fogarty referred to Carcieri as “Governor,” while Carcieri called Fogarty “Charlie.”

Callers suggested Carcieri was being rude or disrespectful with the familiar form of address. Carcieri’s campaign had a different explanation.

Fogarty “has made it clear in his political advertising and in his lawn signs that he wants to be known as Charlie,” Carcieri campaign spokesman Jeff Neal said. “By contrast, if you look at the governor’s lawn signs, for instance, he wants to be known as Governor Carcieri.”

“Certainly,” Neal added, “Governor Carcieri means no disrespect at all to the lieutenant governor.”

Be that as it may, Fogarty campaign spokesman Adam Bozzi said, “I think it would probably be more appropriate if the governor addressed him as lieutenant governor in a formal debate.”

There’s one problem with that: It’s just so darn long.

“In a debate format where you have very little time to try to get out a lot of information, it’s just very difficult to repeatedly use the term ‘lieutenant governor,’ ” Neal said. “There’s just a lot of syllables there, and it takes away from the amount of time you have to respond to questions.”

Many people call Fogarty “Governor,” as an abbreviation for the longer title of “lieutenant governor,” but one might also infer a bit of wishful thinking, as in “our next governor.” Neal says Carcieri has no problem with others calling Fogarty “governor” for short, but it’s unlikely you’ll find Carcieri using that moniker anytime soon.

-- Journal staff writers Scott Mayerowitz and Elizabeth Gudrais