It's now been well over a month since Democrat Deborah Ross challenged incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr to four debates. That was back in June, and in the intervening time a federal appeals court has ordered the state of North Carolina to restore a week of early voting. In light of that, Ross is pushing Burr to hurry up and agree to the debates, and Burr is whining about it.
Ross sent a letter to Burr on Wednesday stressing the importance of voters hearing directly from the candidates before heading to the polls.
“Too often in campaigns like this, the airwaves will become crowded with political ads. It’s important that voters hear where we stand on the issues important to them,” Ross said.
Burr’s campaign spokesman Jesse Hunt said Ross’ letter is a strategy to distract from other issues.
“We find Deborah Ross’ actions (Wednesday) to be nothing more than political gamesmanship given the campaigns sat down with the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters last week for negotiations,” Hunt said. “This undermines the spirit of those discussions, and raises serious questions and doubts about the candidate’s campaign negotiating team.”
Uh, huh. Burr is also only negotiating with the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters at the time, while Ross has asked for additional debates with Time Warner Cable News, ABC11 and WECT-TV of Wilmington. Maybe Burr is reluctant to engage because he's rusty at this—he refused to debate his primary opponents this year.
Whatever the reason he's dragging his heels, it's only giving more fuel to Ross's insurgent campaign.
Please spend $3 to help Deborah Ross get to the Senate.