The Citizens Clean Elections Commission rejected a demand by Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs to scrap the traditional gubernatorial debate.
The panel voted 3-1 Thursday to spurn a request by Hobbs to replace the 60-minute moderated head-to-head debate instead with a โtown hall.โโ The town hall would have given each candidate 30 minutes alone, subject only to questions by Ted Simons, a host on the Phoenix PBS affiliate station.
โI donโt support the town hall style,โโ said commission Chairman Damien Meyer.
โOur mission is to have debates, not town halls,โโ added Galen Paton. He said candidates are free to make such arrangements elsewhere.
But the commission agreed Thursday to give Hobbs one week to decide whether there are any conditions under which she would agree to share the stage Oct. 12 with Republican Kari Lake in a debate. Plans are to have the event aired live not only on PBS but other stations throughout the state.
The odds of that happening, though, appear slim, as Hobbsโ campaign manager, Nicole DeMont, told commissioners her candidate has no interest in participating in what has been the traditional back and forth moderated by Simons. DeMont said Lakeโs actions during the GOP primary debate show she would make the general election debate into a โspectacle.โโ
โYou canโt debate a conspiracy theorist,โโ she said.
She sidestepped a question from Meyer about whether there were any conditions under which Hobbs would appear for a debate.
โIโm not going to answer a hypothetical question,โโ DeMont responded.
But if Hobbs ultimately wonโt participate, that doesnโt kill the entire plan. Commissioners said they instead would give Lake, who already has agreed to a full debate format, 30 minutes on her own to answer questions from Simons โ with no input from or opportunity for Hobbs to respond.
The commission has conducted debates every election since being created by voters in 1998.
Strictly speaking, only candidates that get public funds for their campaigns, administered by the commission, are legally required to participate. And both Hobbs and Lake are using private donations.
The record, however, shows every gubernatorial candidate has agreed not only to participate but also to the format, which consists of questions directed at them by the moderator but also provides the opportunity for them to interact with and question each other.
It is that format that Hobbs finds unacceptable.
โShe is willing and enthusiastic to participate in a substantive conversation that would allow Arizonans the chance to compare the ideas, policies and solutions of their candidates,โโ DeMont told commissioners.
โHowever, we donโt believe that is what Kari Lakeโs intention is here,โโ she continued. โItโs pretty clear that she only wants to create another spectacle.โโ
She suggested that includes Lake resurrecting her theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.
โSo, when she decides to come back to reality, accept the results of our free and fair elections, then we can start to have a real policy debate,โโ DeMont said.
Attorney Timothy LaSota, who represents Lake, told commissioners they should not change the rules to protect Hobbs against uncomfortable questions.
โThis is an unprecedented request by a gubernatorial candidate to alter the rules of the debate,โโ he said.
LaSota said thereโs no reason to believe Simons cannot keep the discussion fair, and called Hobbsโ excuses for not wanting to debate โa cop out.โโ
โThe fact that Katie Hobbs tries to blame someone else because sheโs simply unwilling to show up on the same stage and debate her record, debate the issues, that is nobodyโs fault but Katie Hobbsโ,โโ he said.
LaSota, in saying Lake wants a debate on issues, also provided a hint of what his candidate is likely to say in a head-to-head with Hobbs.
He told commissioners that Hobbs is blame shifting, โreminiscent of when she was found to have racially and sexually discriminated against Talonya Adams.โโ
That is based on two separate civil trials in federal court where jurors concluded Adams, a Senate Democratic staffer who is Black, was the victim of retaliation for asking to be paid the same as white staffers. Hobbs was the Senate minority leader at the time.
Commissioners, while ruling a town hall is off the table and insisting on the debate format, did acknowledge at least some of the concerns Hobbs has about a freewheeling event. They said they would consider some possible guardrails โ if she agrees to participate.
โI think that there is merit to trying to maybe give a little more structure and some minor modifications to this debate process, just so we have โ both candidates have โ a complete understanding of what the rules will be, what the consequences will be if those rules are broken,โโ Meyer said.
That could even could include turning off someoneโs microphone, he said.
Tim Steller's column: Kelly, Hobbs must stop dodging debates
