The Washington State Debate Coalition (WSDC) has canceled its Oct. 11 gubernatorial debate between Bob Ferguson and Dave Reichert in Ellensburg, the agency announced Thursday.
The decision to cancel the debate comes after possible miscommunication between WSDC and Ferguson’s campaign, with WSDC claiming that Ferguson withdrew from the debate after “months of planning and repeated conversations with the campaign to stay the course and proceed as planned with the event,” and Ferguson’s campaign claiming Ferguson “never committed to this debate at any point in the process.”
In a Thursday, Aug. 22, news release, WSDC stated that it initially reached out to candidates about the debate in March and later sent “additional communications” to the top-two vote getters in the Aug. 6 primary, Feguson and Reichert.
“An additional note was sent about the event” on Aug. 21, according to the release.
“Regrettably, the Ferguson campaign rebuffed these requests and has formally withdrawn from the WSDC debate,” WSDC said in the news release.
In a response to a Chronicle reporter’s request for comment on Friday, Aug. 23, a spokesperson for Ferguson’s campaign said, “The claims that Bob pulled out of this debate are inaccurate and untruthful,” adding that the campaign would ask for retractions from any news outlets who printed WSDC’s Aug. 22 news release.
“We are committed to two debates with Reichert: Sept. 10 in Seattle and Sept. 18 in Spokane,” Ferguson’s campaign spokesperson said in an email to a Chronicle reporter on Friday.
The WSDC’s Oct. 11 debate would have taken place at Central Washington University and included “a seasoned panel of veteran journalists: Hana Kim, FOX 13 (lead), Paris Jackson, Cascade PBS, Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard, and Kim Malcolm, KUOW,” according to the WSDC news release.
“To say that I’m disappointed by this outcome would be an understatement,” said WSDC member and Seattle CityClub Executive Director Alicia Crank. “In the end, it’s really Washington voters who will be most impacted by this decision. This debate has been carefully developed to provide a neutral, centrally-located venue for the candidates to share their views on the issues that matter most to voters. Debates are a vital part of our civic fabric, providing both candidates with an equal opportunity to share detailed perspectives about policy issues.”
WSDC will host a debate at 7 p.m. on Sept. 18 at Seattle Central College for Seattle City Council; at 8 p.m. on Sept. 19 at Seattle Central College for Washington state Attorney General; and 7 p.m. on Sept. 26 at the Edmonds Center for the Arts for the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
“We are hugely disappointed by this turn of events but look forward to hosting three other candidate debates in September with candidates for Seattle City Council, Attorney General and Superintendent of Public Instruction,” Crank said.
Ferguson and Reichert will square off on Sept. 10 in a televised debate organized by The Seattle Times and KING 5 News, in partnership with weekly Spanish language newspaper El Sol de Yakima and CBS affiliate KREM-2 in Spokane.
The debate airs at 8 p.m. on KING 5 and a livestream will be available on seattletimes.com.
The second debate, hosted by the Association of Washington Business and Greater Spokane Incorporated in Spokane, will take place at 6 p.m. on Sept. 18.
NonStop Local KHQ-TV will serve as the broadcast partner for the debate, which will air on TV and stream at nonstoplocal.com, according to previous reporting.
