After some turmoil, looks like U.S. Senate candidates will debate at PLU next month

First she was, then she wasn’t. Then she was pursuing alternatives, and now she is again.

Confused? You’re not alone about the tortured journey Sen. Maria Cantwell has taken in getting to “yes” on accepting an invitation from the Washington Debate Coalition to square off with her challenger, Susan Hutchison.

Or has she?

Late Tuesday, Cantwell campaign spokesman Michael Meehan said the incumbent Democrat had accepted “the Oct. 8 debate” against her Republican opponent that he said was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. Word that the senator would, indeed, debate Hutchison was reinforced by a late night campaign news release issued after the debate coalition and Cantwell’s campaign each had said earlier Tuesday that the senator had declined to participate in debates set for Oct. 6 and Oct. 30.

The only trouble with Cantwell’s announcement?

“It’s completely made up; there is no debate scheduled at PLU for October 8,” Steve Beren, Hutchison’s campaign spokesman, said early Wednesday.

The coalition hasn’t notified Hutchison’s campaign of any such debate, Beren said.

“There’s been no new invitation to the two candidates, no phone call, no room has been reserved,” Beren said. “This whole thing is misleading — made up, contrived — by the Cantwell campaign. They were under pressure for not committing to the (Oct. 6) debate, and instead of accepting the coalition’s initial invitation, they’re now pretending that they’ve accepted a different debate on Oct. 8.”

A spokesman for the nonpartisan coalition had not returned messages seeking comment Wednesday morning.

On Sept. 6, the nonpartisan coalition announced the dates for several free-to-the-public debates in both the U.S. Senate and 8th Congressional District House races. The first debate between Cantwell and Hutchison was set for 7 p.m. Oct. 6 at PLU, with a second debate scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 30 at Gonzaga University in Spokane. In its announcement, the coalition noted both events remained “pending U.S. Senate scheduling.”

Last week, during a visit to The Seattle Times, Cantwell, who is seeking her fourth six-year term, said she was committed to participating in at least two debates with Hutchison before the November election. But, the senator added, her campaign still was trying to firm up a date and location for the first debate.

“I think they’re trying to find a date that’s bulletproof that we know that we won’t be there [in session in Washington, D.C.] because we don’t control it,” Cantwell said. “And so, I think [Oct.] 8th is a federal holiday, and so they’re thinking that that’s a better date. I think that’s where it stands at the moment.”

Cantwell and her campaign have blamed Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for her scheduling difficulties, contending McConnell’s changes to this year’s Senate schedule could potentially keep members in session in Washington, D.C., through much of October.

According to the coalition, the original dates for its planned debates were set only after the coalition sought dates from both campaigns in June, with Cantwell in July confirming her availability for a first debate on Oct. 6 at PLU.

Hutchison, the former KIRO TV news anchor and ex-state GOP party chairwoman, noted last week that the first debate was set for a Saturday night when “there’s no way Maria Cantwell isn’t available” even if the Senate were still in session.

But last week, the coalition acknowledged it was “still negotiating” dates with Cantwell, and by early Tuesday it announced that both planned debates were off because the senator had declined to participate.

In an “Open Letter” to Cantwell distributed to the media, the coalition detailed that Cantwell’s campaign had “wavered” on the dates in recent weeks, then ignored repeated requests to confirm her participation in the events that had been scheduled. The letter said that last week, Cantwell’s campaign contacted the coalition to propose Oct. 8 as an alternative for the first debate. The coalition said it reluctantly agreed to change the date if Cantwell’s campaign agreed to it within 24 hours. That apparently didn’t happen.

In a phone call Tuesday, Cantwell spokesman Bryan Watt disputed some details in the coalition’s letter, saying “we’d never specifically agreed to those dates.”

“We’ve tried to be as clear as we could with the debate coalition that we just couldn’t commit to those dates,” Watt said. “Unfortunately, they had a different impression.”

Watt added that Cantwell’s campaign was instead “working” to set up two alternative debates that he said would be sponsored by The (Everett) Herald and The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review, noting that the coalition was “not the only debates in town, so to speak.”

But several hours later, Meehan, another Cantwell spokesman, had contacted the media to say Cantwell was a go for the coalition’s “Oct. 8 debate.”

So what changed?

In a phone call, Meehan said Cantwell had learned that the Senate’s confirmation vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court likely would be held on Monday, Oct. 1 — meaning it probably no longer would interfere with the senator’s participation in a debate on Oct. 8. Still, Meehan added that the campaign may have to reconsider the Oct. 8 debate if the Senate’s session poses conflicts, he added.

Cantwell’s campaign then put out the 9:45 p.m. news release announcing her participation in two debates, citing the Oct. 8 event at PLU and a second event in Spokane, with “(d)etails forthcoming.”

But Beren, Hutchison’s spokesman, called Cantwell’s debate announcement “a fictional thing.”

“Nobody has asked us to change any dates,” he said. “The only way this is going to end well for Maria Cantwell is if she just stops all this silliness and agrees to the debate on Oct. 6, as was originally planned.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 8:00 AM with the headline "After some turmoil, looks like U.S. Senate candidates will debate at PLU next month."