September 16, 2010 08:30 PM UTC

Markey In Negotiations for Two Televised Debates

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• by: rdawkins22

Last night, Libertad posted a diary on Coloradopols commenting on Betsy Markey’s recent decision to pull out of the debate sponsored by The Coloradoan & 9 news. Referencing a recent article in the Coloradoan itself, he writes:

Shocking news from CD4 comes with a last minute announcement from the Congressman to refuse a debate with challenger Cory Gardner.

Under terms calling for a polling threshold 50% lower then Presidential debates require, ACP and other candidates were not invited. Yet these same terms existed in 2008 for the debate sponsored by 9News & The Coloradoan.

Republican Gardner was saddened by Markey’s late refusal to address the voters.

Saddened by this news, I wrote a post on my own website chastising Markey for the decision. I argued that she was doing a disservice to the district by denying the voters an opportunity to see the major candidates debate the major issues important to Colorado, match wits, and defend their positions side-by-side in a public forum.

Indeed, the Coloradoan article–the same article Libertad referenced–reported that Markey “disagreed with the organizers’ plans to only invite candidates who have shown at least 10 percent support in polls.” And it reported that she wanted all four candidates present for the one-hour televised debate even though Ken Waszkiewicz and Doug Aden are only polling five and two percent respectively.

In doing so, the article heavily implied that the Coloradoan/9 News debate is the only one Markey had committed to because the campaign hadn’t responded to a debate invitation by PBS.  

Since the publication of Libertad’s diary, as well as my post, however, I have been in contact Markey’s campaign spokesman, Ben Marter, and he has informed me that contrary to the reporting in the Coloradoan article, which omits critical information, Markey has actually already agreed to other televised debates.  

“We have agreed to two televised debates so far, but we’re still confirming dates and times,” he told me.

While still in negotiation over the details, he also told me that all four candidates will be invited.

I am heartened by this news and I look forward to a lively and festive exchange between Markey, Gardner, and the other two candidates.

For Libertad’s diary: http://www.coloradopols.com/di…

The original posts on my website:

http://ryanpolitics.blogspot.c…

http://ryanpolitics.blogspot.c…