Last night's Rick Dollinger-Joe Robach debate at Aenon Baptist Church went down about as expected - with no Joe Robach.

Dollinger got plenty of questions from the audience and wound up, twice, debating members of the audience. And in a couple of instances, people in the audience wound up debating - or shouting down - each other.

Dollinger, a Democrat, is running against the Republican incumbent Robach for the 56th District state Senate seat. Dollinger had challenged Robach to a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate, but Robach declined.

During last night's forum - the term "debate" was scrapped once it was clear it wouldn't be a two-candidate affair - Dollinger laid out his positions. To combat violence, he said, the focus should include education. Key to that, he said, is boosting funding for city schools. Young people are "picking up guns because they've dropped their books," he said.

Dollinger also said he wants the Rockefeller drug laws abolished, and he wants more emphasis on addiction treatment for drug offenders whose only crimes are drug offenses.

Robach's absence at the forum didn't mean smooth sailing for Dollinger. Two Monroe County employees in the audience put him on the defensive. With all the "ills" of the city, asked Kevan Sheppard, the first deputy clerk for the County Legislature, "Isn't the city run by Democrats?"

Dollinger tried to deflect that question by saying that Republicans have run the State Senate for 30 years and are responsible for many of New York's problems.

There was no real back and forth between Dollinger and his critics. Instead, Dollinger supporters sometimes shouted down the critics. "If it's going to be this way," responded Ron House (who works in the county's human-resources department), "maybe that's why your opponent isn't here," and stormed out of the room.