Strike a Balance When Setting Virginia Gubernatorial Debates

Ten gubernatorial debates are more than even the most hungry political junky would want to watch.

That’s the number Republican Bob McDonnell proposed last week to Democrat Creigh Deeds. The debates would begin this month, with a schedule of times and locations across Virginia. It’s a common politician’s ploy – develop a schedule for debates, foist it on the other guy and if they refuse the full schedule, claim they don’t care about the issues or the voters.

Deeds hasn’t specifically accepted nor declined McDonnell’s offer. Instead, his campaign issued a statement that “We expect the number of debates to be in line with precedent from the 2005 Kaine-Kilgore [gubernatorial race] and Deeds-McDonnell [attorney general’s race] debate schedules.”

In other words: three.

We think Virginia voters want to watch and hear about what separates these two candidates in the form of public, televised debates. And there is nothing magic about the number three. As always is the case, whoever believes they are running ahead will want to minimize the number of debates, or wait to debate as close as possible to Election Day.

Still 10 debates are too many. And dictating the schedule to your opponent is a ploy.

But Election Day will soon be upon us and Virginia voters deserve a chance to hear and see these men debate important issues.

So both candidates take heed: Don’t wait until the last minute to set the dates. Strike a balance by scheduling the debates now, together, and consider as many as five face-to-face meetings to hash out the issues for voters.