Steve Pearce (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
With U.S. Rep. Harry Teague not directly answering Steve Pearce’s challenge to 10 “town-hall style” debates across the district, and instead accusing him of ignoring some counties, Pearce has upped his challenge to 18 debates – one in each county in the 2nd Congressional District.
“Since they like talking about 18 counties, Steve is happy to debate Teague in all 18 counties,” Pearce spokesman Jason Heffley said. “Will they accept? Or will Teague continue to prefer to hide behind staff or in private settings? The question remains – will he agree to debating in 8 or 18 counties?”
The campaigns are already discussing with media outlets having 2-3 formal debates, the Pearce campaign has said. On Wednesday, Pearce, the Republican in the race, issued an additional challenge to Teague, the Democrat, to debate him 10 times in at least eight counties across the district in “town-hall style” formats.
The response from Teague’s campaign manager was that there “will be debates,” but he didn’t directly answer Pearce’s challenge. Instead, he pointed out that Pearce has ducked debates in past elections and said “the real news” is that Pearce’s “debate dodging days are possibly over.”
And he asked, since Pearce wants debates in eight counties, which of the district’s 18 counties Pearce thinks should be ignored.
I’ve asked the Teague campaign for a response to the new challenge from the Pearce campaign. I’ll let you know how Teague responds.