SEATTLE – Bob Ferguson (D) and Dave Reichert (R) will face off in two debates ahead of Washington’s November gubernatorial election, with a third potential match-up sparking controversy.
The first debate will take place on Sept. 10 in Seattle, with a second Spokane debate cohosted by NonStop Local KHQ to take place Sept. 18 at The Fox Theater.
A third debate between Reichert and Ferguson that was purportedly being coordinated by the Washington State Debate Coalition for October will not move ahead. The details of the canceled debate are contested.
The debate coalition initially claimed that Ferguson withdrew from the debate after agreeing to appear in Ellensburg alongside Reichert.
“By pulling out of the debate, voters will be denied the opportunity to hear a civil exchange of ideas, a fundamental characteristic of our democratic process,” Seattle CityClub Executive Director Alicia Crank wrote in a press release.
Ferguson’s campaign pushed back on Crank’s claims and said that the candidate looks forward to the Seattle and Spokane debates with Reichert.
“The claims that Bob pulled out of this debate are inaccurate and untruthful…Bob never committed to this debate at any point in the process, and their claims are 100% inaccurate,” the campaign said.
Hours after the original Washington State Debate Coalition email saying that Ferguson pulled out of the debate, the organization apologized and said that it was inaccurate.
“While the majority of the statement is accurate, the uses of ‘withdraw’ and ‘pulling out of the debate’ were too strong of a description to summarize the outcome,” Crank said.
Crank went on to say that each campaign had committed to save the date of the potential debate but never formally committed to making an appearance.
Emails between the campaign and the debate coalition seem to show that Ferguson’s campaign manager Bayley Burgess was in contact with the organizers but never agreed to appear in Ellensburg.
Crank said that the email exchange did not reflect the verbal conversation that she had with Bayley, but that the emails themselves were genuine. The Ferguson campaign responded to the situation with an unequivocal denial that the candidate ever agreed to a debate.
“We do not know why she is spreading these falsehoods, we never committed to the debate at any point in the process,” the Ferguson campaign said.
