Bennett and Kean met for 90 minutes in Rahway on Sunday night, in the only debate they’ll have before the election. The New Jersey Globe and Rider University hosted it. The Globe’s own write-up judged that neither candidate landed a blow or made a gaffe big enough to change the race, which analysts give to the challenger by a slight margin.

Last week we asked what she would lead with. Her service record was the obvious card. A September poll had credited her five-point lead to household costs instead, and to Kean’s own weak approval numbers. Sunday gave a fairly clear answer, and it was both, kept apart.

The war was the one subject where Bennett reached for her record, and she did it repeatedly. According to the Globe, she cited her military experience as a primary reason for opposing the war with Iran. She argued the war was making the country less safe, and she called for trying diplomacy first. She came back to it more than once during the night.

Kean took the other side without hedging. He said the United States was winning, defended his opposition to letting Congress vote on whether to authorize the conflict, and argued that Iran’s nuclear ambitions left no room to wait. On this issue the two candidates were as far apart as they were all night.

So the service record did the job this site says it does. It gave a first-time candidate standing on a national security question, against an incumbent who sits on committees and has a long family name in New Jersey politics. Nobody on stage suggested she didn’t know what she was talking about.

Kean spent much of the night on his own record, and he had material to use. He cited his fight to protect federal money for the Gateway rail tunnel and his push to raise the cap on the state and local tax deduction, which matters in one of the most heavily taxed states in the country. He also said he would stand up to anyone who got in his way, including the president. But the Globe pointed out that he has usually voted with his party’s conference in Washington.

At times the room got loud, as supporters on both sides interrupted the candidates. Yet the two agreed on more than their ads suggest. Both backed an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, though they split sharply over the Netanyahu government, which Bennett criticized and Kean defended without reservation.

Everywhere else, Bennett ran on money. She said more than once that the country is living through a cost of living crisis. She promised to repeal the tax cuts for the richest earners and use the money to lower health premiums and cap child care costs. And she tied the war back to the pocketbook, blaming it for gas and grocery prices.

That last move connected her two lanes. The war was where her service gave her authority, and the war was also, in her telling, why a tank of gas costs more. She didn’t have to choose between the credential and the kitchen table.

She also passed on two openings that most Democrats in swing seats have taken this fall. The Globe noted that she declined several chances to tie Kean to Donald Trump, whose approval stood around 39 percent. She argued instead that his votes followed his investments and his corporate donors. The House Democrats’ campaign arm made the Trump link for her in a statement afterward. Meanwhile the Republican side went straight at the tax law, with a spokeswoman for its campaign committee calling Bennett’s opposition to it disqualifying in a high-tax state.

Nor did she press him on his absence. Kean spent months away from Congress this year receiving treatment for depression, and Bennett’s only comment on stage was that she was glad he had gotten the care he needed. He said nobody can plan a medical emergency, and that his office had kept constituents informed.

Bennett spent much of the night on Kean’s stock trades, and Gothamist has reported he profited by as much as $340,000 from trades during his absence. The Globe noted that an independent manager handles Kean’s finances and that he only signs the reports the law requires. Kean also argued that Bennett still had some control over her investments, since they sit in mutual funds, although she said she had sold her individual stocks.

Then a moderator asked Bennett to disclose her net worth. According to Gothamist, she appeared flustered and didn’t give a number. Kean put his own at about $10 million.

The exchange landed on the exact ground she chose. A candidate who builds a case around an opponent’s money invites the same question back. She had an answer on policy and no answer on herself. So a Republican ad writer will have noticed, because the question costs nothing to repeat and she has now shown it can rattle her.

We’ve watched veteran Democrats handle their service in public all month, and the pattern holds. JoAnna Mendoza in Arizona uses twenty years in the Marines as a credential and makes her case on prices. Bennett used hers on the one issue where it carries the most weight, and then moved on.

One debate is a small sample, and most voters never watch these events. The clips that travel are the ones campaigns choose, and Kean’s side is likely to choose the net-worth question over anything Bennett said about Iran. A debate that nobody wins also tends to favor the status quo, and in this seat the status quo is a narrow Bennett lead.

Our reply is modest. The debate didn’t prove that service wins votes. It showed a disciplined candidate using her record where it counts and not leaning on it where it doesn’t, which is roughly what the evidence from our own coverage says works. Whether that discipline holds up under an ad about her finances is the next test.

The next test is whether the net-worth moment turns into an ad, and how quickly Bennett answers it. The other is whether a second independent poll finds her lead holding once the debate clips have run their course, since the only survey so far came before Sunday and from a sponsor with a stake in the result.

Kean made one piece of news of his own, saying for the first time that he opposes a planned immigration detention center in a Roxbury warehouse. Bennett said she has opposed it all along. On that local fight, at least, the two ended the night on the same side.