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The Debate About Debates: Why It Matters

Republican Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land has blown off an invitation from WOOD-TV 8 in Grand Rapids to participate in a debate Sept. 8 with her Democratic opponent, Gary Peters. WOOD TV 8 says Land's camp has been silent on the invite, while Peters' accepted the debate invitation.

Land has been noticeably absent from the larger campaign trail, relying instead on a series of private, invitation only events. This became her de facto campaign strategy following what can only be described as a slow motion disaster when she held a press availability on Mackinac Island earlier this year. Land bumbled answers, tripped over her own ideas and generally provided a word salad of nothingness before announcing "I can't do this" and walking away.
With the former Secretary of State's performance on Mackinac, her stealth campaign makes sense. Political handlers clearly don't want a repeat of that incident, so you can bet they are going to avoid any debates or unscripted moments to soften the potential for any gaffs. Watch this campaign to be played out via television and radio commercials as well as internet commercials and political mailings.
In the gubernatorial debate, the Detroit News reports that Governor Rick Snyder, the Republican incumbent, also declined to appear on the WOOD TV 8 debates. His team says they have offered to debate Democratic opponent Mark Schauer in a series of three day time debates at the Detroit Economic Club. The DEC would be a Snyder friendly space, driven by business interests. Because the proposal calls for debates during the day, it would also prevent many Schauer supporters from being able to attend such debates because of job responsibilities.
Snyder and Schauer are now neck and neck in the race for governor. That means a debate could be a misstep for the governor and boon to Schauer, who still lags in name recognition. Any error in a debate could hurt either candidate in statewide polling.
Schauer has now unleashed a public relations campaign calling on Snyder to agree to five debates before the November general election.
But Snyder has a history of ducking the hard conversations. Between The Lines and a coalition of alternative news outlets have been trying to get a sit down interview with Snyder for years to no avail. His communications team doesn't even bother responding to requests, acting as if being interviewed by the state's gay newspaper and several alternative news outlets is below them.

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