It’s unclear whether Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (left), the Democratic nominee for governor, will get on a debate stage with her opponent, Kari Lake, the GOP nominee and a former Fox 10 anchor, ahead of the November election. Hobbs missed the Aug. 26 deadline to RSVP for the popular election debate that the Citizens’ Clean Elections Commission and Arizona PBS will host.
By Nick Phillips Arizona || Arizona Capitol Times
With one deadline already in the rearview mirror, it’s still not clear if the Democratic nominee for governor will get on a debate stage with her opponent before the November general election.
Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs missed the Aug. 26 deadline to RSVP for the popular election debate hosted by the Citizens’ Clean Elections Commission and Arizona PBS, and her team still hasn’t met with the commission to talk about changes they’ve said they want to make to the debate format.
Hobbs’ hesitance raises the prospect that an event usually viewed as a key part of a gubernatorial election campaign won’t happen this year – or it will come in a radically different form.
But Hobbs might be forced to make a decision soon. The Clean Elections Commission set a new RSVP deadline of Sept. 2 – though that, like the Aug. 26 deadline, might be soft.
Kari Lake, the former Fox 10 anchor and GOP nominee, said she’ll definitely show up for a debate and has lambasted Hobbs for the lack of commitment.
“Come out, come out wherever you are, Katie. I’m not afraid to answer tough questions, and you owe it to the people of Arizona to do the same,” she said in a statement earlier this month, as Hobbs equivocated in the lead-up to the deadline.
Shortly after 5 p.m. on Aug. 26, Hobbs’ campaign manager emailed the commission asking to “meet to discuss changes to the proposed format.” But as of Aug. 30, that hadn’t happened, and a spokesman for Hobbs only said that “we’re having a conversation” with the commission and that the campaign would say more “soon.”
Lake, Hobbs, gubernatorial, GOP, Democratic, election, debate, Clean Elections Commmission
