Wednesday, September 27th, 2006...7:24 am
Um, Sounds Nice. Too Bad It’s Bunk
Over on Arizona 8th, they are claiming that Gabrielle Giffords is just like Steve Huffman and dodging debates.
This is, on the face of it, silly. Giffords has agreed to appear at six debates between now and the general election. By way of comparison, Giffords appeared at her first primary debate in January, and over the next roughly eight months, she appeared in fourteen debates and “candidate fora.” This would be six debates in eight weeks. Get out your slide rules and figure out the difference in the ratios. This will be on the test.
Six debates. That’s more than Len Munsil will have with Janet Napolitano or that Jon Kyl will have with Jim Pederson, and those people are running state wide. This is so many debates that even I might get sick of seeing Giffords’s smile.
The claim over on Arizona 8th is that Giffords refused to appear at any debate where there will be less than 200 people. Those of you that have been to these in the past know that many of these events are lucky to get one hundred, and that is a stretch. I thought this claim was strange, so I did something that violates blogger ethics.
I actually called the Giffords campaign to find out about this.
“That’s just ridiculous,” they told me.
It turns out that Giffords was invited to appear at over thirty debates. Did Randy Graf pledge to appear at every single one of them? I hope so, since it won’t leave him much time to campaign.
4 Comments
September 27th, 2006 at 8:24 am
Nicely said, Ted. As I mentioned on AZ 8th and on Blog for Arizona. I think, strategically, 6 is TOO many. Graf has no money…or very little. He has very few ways to get his message out other than to attend events and score points in the debates. The latter will get him free press and possibly momentum with it.
This is the very reason that Jon Kyl wants to give Pederson as few opportunities to debate him as possible. Why take the risk? At a recent Pederson fundraiser I attended he decried the fact that Kyl may only give him 2 opportunties in mid to late October to debate him. How gracious!!!
Anyhow, I think 6 is a LOT and that it is quite gutsy for the Giffords camp to engage in. A few of my colleagues here disagree with me, but I know what I would do if I were Graf.
September 27th, 2006 at 9:19 am
Calling the campaign is a violation of blogger ethics? I’ll have to keep that in mind.
I reacted at the AZ 8 thread as well and also posted at my own blog about this.
I think Randy is on a collision course with the “Graffinator.”
Sorry.
September 27th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Within reason, the more opportunites people have to see the candidates side-by-side, the better it is for Ms. Giffords
Moreover, with the exception of the Sierra Vista debate on Oct. 23, unlikely to be covered by Tucson media, the venues and sponsors, which will govern the topics debated, are going to raise problems for Graf. For example, would you want to defend his positions on social security and health care in front of the Pima Council on Aging?
September 27th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Well said Randall.
When the campaign negotiated the who sponsored, the where, etc., I think the audience in most cases will be Giffords friendly.
I also share your belief that the more that see and hear Gabrielle the better. She is fantastic, smart, and is charismatic. I am the same age as she is and wish very much that I had those abilities. However, people can also hear her in non-debate settings too (smile) and what often matters most in a debate (apart from the crowd) is what the press SAYS that happened. I know those in charge of her campaign know this and are super smart and competent, so I worry less and less.
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