If Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley and Gov. Robert Ehrlich had spent as much time debating each other as their campaigns have spent arguing about debates, then voters likely would see more than the one and only televised debate that is scheduled for taping Saturday.
Both candidates for governor claim they wanted more debates but accuse the other side of ducking the challenge, finding excuses and scheduling conflicts.
The latest exchange was triggered Wednesday by a news release from the Ehrlich campaign headlined, “Governor Ehrlich honors debate commitment” to a TV station in Salisbury, with O?Malley?s name crossed out.
Ehrlich campaign spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver said, “I have a letter dated Sept. 22, agreeing to four debates” with O?Malley.
“We had never confirmed a date” for the Salisbury session, O?Malley said. He said he had a scheduled commitment for an event in Washington with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Adrian Fenty, the Democratic nominee for mayor of the District.
“I want to do a live TV debate,” O?Malley said. “I hope we?re still on” for Saturday, but negotiations still continued on its format. “It?s been like pulling teeth,” he said, with the Ehrlich camp insisting on no podiums, no standing and other conditions. “Soon they?ll be asking that we not speak,” he quipped.
“Sometimes we get silly notices,” the mayor said, for instance, one inviting him to appear on WOLB?s Larry Young radio show the night before.
Ehrlich had pressed for more radio debates, but insisted that all debates happen by Oct. 15.
O?Malley said he plans to show up for a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People debate at Morgan State University in two weeks. In the lone debate of the 2002 campaign with then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Ehrlich got a hostile reception atan NAACP debate at Morgan.
In another debate controversy, a three-way debate in the U.S. Senate race scheduled this morning on Young?s show was turned into consecutive individual appearances. Rep. Ben Cardin?s campaign had agreed to do the three-way debate Friday morning.
