Merkley, Smith campaigns spar over debates

PORTLAND -- U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley’s (D-Portland) campaign accused U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) of refusing to debate and adequate number of times leading up to the November election on Friday, but the Smith campaign is saying Merkley’s campaign manager, Jon Isaacs, dismissed an offer to sit down with Smith's campaign manager, Brooks Kochvar, to hash out the details of joint appearances.

The Merkley campaign is saying that Smith has only accepted two debate invitations and rejected half a dozen more. Smith’s campaign spokeswoman Lindsay Gilbride said Smith has actually agreed to a third debate, set for Oct. 6, sponsored by the Oregon Association of Broadcasters, and is waiting for Merkley’s confirmation.

Moreover, Gilbride said that the Merkley campaign refused an offer in a letter from Smith campaign manager Brooks Kochvar, asking for Merkley campaign manager Jon Isaacs to give him a call so they could arrange debates together.

The letter was obtained by PolitickerOR.com and is dated July 21, the same day that Merkley challenged Smith to eight debates.

Isaacs' response is dated July 28, and he tells Kochvar that he has already discussed the debates with interested parties, without Kochvar.

 "Our campaign is already in discussion with planners of these debates and look forward to your participation in these discussions," Isaacs said.

After almost two months with no offer to work together, Gilbride said the Smith campaign decided to respond to debates that gave as many Oregonians as possible the chance of tuning in. It meant declining some offers, Gilbride said, simply because there were too many offers to say yes to.

“The Smith campaign declined the Portland City Club's offer to host a debate - just as it declined offers from dozens of other similar groups across the state - because those venues do not offer the maximum exposure of the candidates to the most number of Oregon voters,” Gilbride said.

If the candidates get three debates together, that would be more than occurred when Smith ran for re-election in 2002. Then, there were only two debates. Still, Merkley’s campaign manager Jon Isaacs said in a statement Friday that in order for Oregonians to make an informed decision, there need to be as many debates as possible. And, with presidential candidates embarking on a nation-wide campaign finding more time to debate than candidates embarking on a statewide campaign, it really shouldn’t be that hard.

"It is quite unbelievable that Senators Obama and McCain can find time to debate three times for the American people, but Senator Smith cannot," wrote Jon Isaacs, Merkley campaign manager, in a letter to the Smith campaign.  "All Oregonians deserve an opportunity to question their candidates for U.S. Senate on the important issues in this race."

Merkley’s campaign said that the Oregon House Speaker would begin filling his calendar with solo events at sites that offered to sponsor a debate. Or, he would schedule other campaign events.