Louisiana Senate candidates can’t reach agreement on debate

Published 10:21 am Wednesday, November 23, 2016

By American Press Staff

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">BATON ROUGE — Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race runoff may happen without a single debate between the two candidates, giving voters no opportunity to see the contenders square off on policy positions and their ideas for holding the office.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Though multiple debates were proposed, Democrat Foster Campbell and Republican John Kennedy agreed only on one event — and that debate has been canceled because the two sides couldn’t come to terms on the format.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">WVLA-TV’s news director, Gary Wordlaw, said Tuesday his station won’t be hosting the debate planned for Dec. 2 and expected to be broadcast on Nexstar stations around Louisiana.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Wordlaw said Kennedy, the state treasurer and front-runner in the race, didn’t want to have the debate in front of a live audience. He said Campbell, a member of the Public Service Commission, wouldn’t agree to participate without a live audience.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">With the two campaigns at an impasse, the debate was scrapped.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We tried our very best to get the two sides together to do this debate,” Wordlaw said. “Neither side would move off of that position, so we’re left in the middle. It’s kind of hard to do a debate if you don’t have two candidates.”</span>

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<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The two campaigns wouldn’t even agree to talk to WVLA at the same time to try to reach a compromise, Wordlaw said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Louisiana’s runoff will decide the nation’s last U.S. Senate seat. The seat is open because Republican David Vitter isn’t running for re-election.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The two candidates each blamed the other.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Campbell’s campaign announced the debate cancellation Tuesday and blamed Kennedy, saying its Republican rival was “ducking and dodging.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Mr. Kennedy is so weak he won’t even debate me. He made time to punch his membership card to the insiders club in Washington with two D.C. fundraising events last week. He’s making time to talk to deep-pocketed, corporate lobbyists, but he won’t make time to talk to the people of Louisiana. He’s pitiful,” Campbell said in a statement.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Democrat’s campaign said the initial debate plan outlined by WVLA-TV involved a live audience at a Baton Rouge school. Wordlaw, however, said the attendance of an audience was always subject to negotiation.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Kennedy’s side accused Campbell of being at fault.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Republican contender’s campaign said it “requested an environment free of distractions in which the candidates could discuss the issues that were most important to Louisiana voters.” Kennedy’s campaign accused Campbell of refusing to participate in the WVLA debate because he couldn’t “bring his notes on the stage” — which was not what Wordlaw claimed was at issue.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Foster Campbell is perfectly comfortable talking about his liberal views on MSNBC, but he refuses to defend those same positions before Louisiana audiences who know that his politics are dangerous to Louisiana,” the campaign said in an email from spokesman Lionel Rainey.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">At least two other planned runoff debates were canceled because the TV station hosts couldn’t get both candidates to agree to participate. Wordlaw said even if the two sides could reach a deal now, it would be too late for WVLA to pull a debate together.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“As far as our participation, we can’t do it,” he said.</span>””<p>John Kennedy</p>

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