| Jack Davis has been silent on debating his two Democratic opponents Alice Kryzan and Jon Powers - until now.
We now have the reason why Davis is refusing to debate his Democratic opponents this Sunday on "Hardline with Hardwick" hosted by Kevin Hardwick (WBEN 930 AM) and Tuesday at SUNY Geneseo.
Davis a no-show at group functions
Davis' campaign spokesman, Joy Langley, said Davis decided this week that he will not take part in any group candidate functions unless Kryzan and Powers answer his prior challenges on campaign conduct.
The self-funded candidate, who committed $3 million of his own money to the race, earlier this year pledged not to accept campaign donations from political action committees, multinational corporations or lobbyists. He invited other contestants to join him in the pledge and none did.
Now Davis says he won't join them in joint campaign appearances unless they return the donations that they've received from those interest groups - as well as sign on with Davis' self-created "pledge to protect Social Security," and promise to run "clean" campaigns.
"Mr. Davis is taking his message to the voters directly door-to-door and on the air while the others have taken a decidedly negative turn with push polls and dark TV advertising," Langley said.
Sorry Jack, no one has to play by your rules. I believe Ms. Kryzan came up with her own pledge some time ago that would limit spending in this race. Clearly Jack Davis ignored that pledge and didn't sign on to it. So does that mean Ms. Kryzan is exempt from the debate because no one signed on to her pledge?
If we go by the rules Jack made for himself then Ms. Kryzan shouldn't have to debate either. But in reality, this is all a smokescreen for the real reason Jack won't be debating Powers and Kryzan.
The real reason is that Jack will say anything in public (see Jack on illegal immigration) and he is very unpredictable. He will say exactly what's on his mind instead of being intelligent about his thoughts and opinions. We saw this in 2004 and 2006.
The other reason that Jack won't debate is that he is scared. Kevin Hardwick hit the nail on the head with this quote in the article I linked to above:
"If you're too afraid to go into a debate for fear of saying something stupid, how can we expect you to stand up to the special interests in Washington?" Hardwick said. "If (Davis') handlers don't trust him ... perhaps they ought not run him for office."
Precisely. Remember: This is a guy (Jack Davis) who told a Democratic committee that he would go to Washington D.C. and take on Pelosi and all the leading Democrats. Notice he didn't say he would take on the Republicans. He wants to go there to create infighting within our own party.
It looks like the debates will go on without Jack Davis. That will give Jon Powers more air-time to talk with voters and it will give Alice Kryzan an opportunity to get more attention than she has garnered in this campaign. |
