With the November election just around the corner, voters aren't likely to get a chance to see U.S. Senate hopefuls Gary Peters and Terri Lynn Land debate.
Instead, most voters looking for insight into the candidates will have to rely on the flood of TV commercials both have aired. And let's face it, it's hard to tell what's true and what's not in those ads.
WXYZ reports that the campaign teams for both candidates failed to come to an agreement on the format for the debate that would have been moderated by WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids. Chuck Stokes of WXYZ said the Peters camp wanted a town hall forum, while the Land people wanted a traditional debate with journalists asking questions. The Peters camp says it would still like to have a debate.
From media reports, it seemed pretty clear that Peters would have had an edge in the debate. Land has been dubbed the invisible candidate, who has relied mostly on TV ads to get out her message. Her performance on a call-in public radio show last Friday was described by Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson as very poor.
The Peters camp said it's still hoping for a debate.
Former Lt. Gov. John Cherry issued a statement on behalf of the campaign saying:
"WXYZ set a deadline today that has now passed. We are interested in a meaningful debate and event that would engage the public and have reached out to Carol Cain of CBS 62 and to Detroit Public TV to begin discussions on a debate that would offer voters a chance to participate just as the Gubernatorial candidates agreed to do."
Interestingly, the Land campaign issued a statement on Wednesday saying that it was going to debate Peters.
Today the Land campaign announced that they are hereby accepting a debate on October 27th with WXYZ and WOOD-TV.
The debate format will be jointly moderated by Chuck Stokes and Rick Albin. One half of the debate will be open to questions from a town hall audience, the other half will be spent on questions from moderators.
“Terri is looking forward to meeting Congressman Peters on stage and exposing his record of hypocrisy, outsourcing and acting as a rubber stamp for Barack Obama and Harry Reid. It’s time to hold Congressman Peters accountable. Let’s do this.” — Heather Swift, Land Campaign Spokeswoman
