NBC News has canceled a live, nationally televised debate between
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce announced the cancellation today in a news release. His campaign said NBC notified it today that it plans to instead focus its Sunday Meet the Press program on the financial crisis.
In a statement sent to the Pearce campaign, Betsy Fischer, executive producer of Meet the Press, said, “Due to our need to focus the program on the escalating financial crisis, we are going to be unable to host this Sunday’s New Mexico Senate Debate. We hope you understand that as a news program we sometimes have to change our programming plans as major news dictates.”
Pearce said the debate “would have been a great opportunity” and he is disappointed, but pointed out that there are still three upcoming televised debates between him and Democratic candidate Tom Udall.
“We have three televised debates that are going to provide
The debate schedule includes a debate on Wednesday hosted by KOB-TV, one on Oct. 18 hosted by KRQE-TV and one on Oct. 26 hosted by KOAT-TV. None of those
Udall spokeswoman Marissa Padilla said Udall “has been looking forward to debating Steve Pearce on Meet the Press this Sunday.”
“He has been campaigning across the state and talking with New Mexicans about the severity of the current economic situation,” Padilla said. “He looks forward to debating Congressman Pearce on this and important issues during their three additional debates this month.”
When NBC scheduled the Meet the Press debate, pundits considered New Mexico’s Senate race one of the hottest in the nation, but Pearce, after gaining ground in the polls weeks ago, has lost ground in recent weeks. Udall has had a double-digit lead in all recent polls.