Lautenberg Refuses to Debate at Stockton College

by: Martin

Thu May 01, 2008 at 08:22:29 AM EDT

Are you disappointed that there have been no debates yet between Andrews and Lautenberg? So am I. And if the Lautenberg camp gets its way, there may be no debates whatsoever, judging from Lautenberg's recent refusal to debate Andrews at Richard Stockton College. With an excuse that we should get used to hearing, the Lautenberg folks (again, it's his media handlers, who seemingly control his campaign, speaking for him) have made "senate business" a repeated excuse for not scheduling any debates

"He won't skip Senate votes to campaign," Lautenberg spokeswoman Julie Roginsky said

Martin :: Lautenberg Refuses to Debate at Stockton College

Two highly-regarded N.J. institutions offered to co-sponsor the debate between Andrews and Lautenberg

The Press of Atlantic City and William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey offered to jointly cosponsor a debate between Andrews and Lautenberg at the college on either May 5 or 6.

And this would be in a part of the state where Lautenberg is not exactly active, to put it mildly, and would have a public forum to share his views. The Hughes Center director went on

"From our perspective, we thought it was a good opportunity for both candidates to showcase themselves in South Jersey and do it in a way that wasn't in one person's congressional district or other," Sharon Schulman, director of the Hughes Center said. "So it's disappointing we can't make that happen."

Paperwork for the U.S. senate campaign was filed over three weeks ago, and there are exactly 32 days until the 3 June senate primary. As of today, the Lautenberg campaign has agreed to no debates whatsoever, while the Andrews campaign has called for multiple debates and agreed to different debate offers and formats from across New Jersey. There is absolutely no excuse for Lautenberg's refusal to debate Andrews, this completely contradicts what Lautenberg himself did in challenging Millicent Fenwick to multiple debates in 1982, and Lautenberg's actions are indeed disresepectful toward the democratic process of an open and public campaign.

Debates are one of the few ways that voters can see candidates unfiltered, outside of slick advertisements and media framing; debates are part of an open and transparent process where the candidates themselves have to answer to the public and engage in public dialogue; and debates are a sure-fire way to measure policy knowledge, thoughtfulness, and policy issues of one campaign against another. The Lautenberg campaign needs to stop making excuse and agree to debates with Andrews immediately -- both the public and the democratic process demands it.