DeWine Debate Watch: Day 17
September 14, 2022
Columbus, OH — As debate season starts to ramp up in the closing weeks and days of the election cycle, Mike DeWine has continued to duck committing to debates across Ohio with Mayor Nan Whaley, even as the Mayor has already publicly agreed and challenged DeWine to a number of debates. DeWine also dodged a debate with his primary opponents earlier this year, signaling that he is scared to defend his record to Ohioans, especially since he’s debated political opponents in the past. It’s ‘DeWine Debate Watch’ Day 17, reminding Ohioans that DeWine won’t even try to make his case to them as he seeks re-election to the highest statewide executive office.
“Mike DeWine clearly knows his record over the last four years of selling out working families in favor of the wealthy and well-connected is not going to be popular with Ohio voters. If DeWine can’t even muster the political courage to tell Ohioans why they should re-elect him, he doesn’t deserve the job and should be held publicly accountable for his cowardice,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.
Ohioans deserve answers from DeWine on a number of key issues, including his promise to ‘go as far as we can’ to rip away reproductive rights, his broken promise to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence in Ohio, his connections to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and his role in the failed redistricting process that produced GOP-gerrymandered maps and cost Ohioans millions of dollars.
Read more from the Dispatch Opinion here and below:
The Columbus Dispatch: Why isn’t Mike DeWine debating Nan Whaley for governor?
Jill Zimon
September 13, 2022
- According to a new USA TODAY Network/Suffolk University poll, voters overwhelmingly say the candidates for governor and U.S. Senate should debate. In fact, 84 percent of them say the candidates should debate.
- We agree with the majority of Ohioans, and we remain ready to sit down with both sides of each race and help them respond to the electorate.
- How did these candidates get to the middle of September without sitting down to talk with each other about debates?
- Maybe candidates and campaigns are out of practice and are taking advantage of the break the pandemic gave in-person demands. Nevertheless, this survey shows that the public believes the leaders who want to serve them should get in shape and show up for in-person experiences.
- They often point to joint appearances at editorial interviews where editorial boards have their own agenda as they consider who to endorse. These are worthwhile endeavors, but they’re not televised debates.
- Other critiques say debates don’t offer new information about candidates, are only about entertainment, and don’t change people’s minds.
- Now, eight out of 10 Ohioans have said they too know the reality, separate from the campaigns’ rationales: in Ohio, we expect our gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates to debate.
- Incumbent gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine actually helped set this expectation. He debated all three times when he ran for the U.S. Senate, including when he had a big lead in 1994 over Joel Hyatt, going on to win 53-39%, and in 2000, when he debated Ted Celeste and won 60-36%.
- And with the governor’s office, only once in Ohio’s last 10 gubernatorial races has there not been a general election debate, even when the candidates were not close.
- Those candidates and campaigns didn’t wait for a poll to tell them the right thing to do and the best way for one candidate to show how they contrast with another. They did what candidates do in strong democracies: show up, stand up, and speak out on a debate stage together.
- This tradition may be at risk, but it is more important than ever: With an open senate seat that has drawn international attention because of its role in the balance of power in our nation’s capital, Ohio’s first-ever female nominee for governor, and tens of thousands of new registrants in Ohio, people want to see and hear for themselves.
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