And you won't believe his excuse.
Alesi/Nachbar - this debate is now cancelled. Senator Jim Alesi (R-Perinton) of the 55th District committed to debate his opponent - Democrat David Nachbar - on September 9th. From that day forward I worked to schedule this, providing exact times and dates when we'd be available by the 30th of September. I placed countless phone calls to Sen. Alesi's campaign to nail down a date and was unsuccessful in getting something scheduled. On Friday Sen. Alesi called me directly to say his scheduler will nail something down this week - I was optimistic. Today I was told the Senator would not schedule a debate and was in essence backing out of his commitment.
I spoke to Senator Alesi directly a few moments ago and was told by him that he has "a very full schedule...and is committed to various other debates and candidate's nights." I was also told that it took me awhile to get them dates and times and that a debate with us just wouldn't fit into his schedule because he's also working "full time as a State Senator" right now too.
I'm told Mr. Nachbar remains ready and willing to debate should Senator Alesi change his mind or find openings in his schedule.
--emphasis mine.
It seems the Nachbar campaign noticed this absurdity as well. From an emailed release:
"The station's been getting the runaround," Williams said. "I can see only one reason why he would avoid debating on the station with the biggest audience. He's afraid of tough questions. The argument that he's too busy is nonsense. The Senate is on vacation."
"As long as we just talk about cardboard checks and ribbon-cutting photo-ops, and nothing else, Alesi does fine. Anything more substantive than that, and he's harder to find."
"This is probably the most important election of our lifetimes, both federal and State. We face enormous, urgent problems, mostly the consequences of years of failed, ethically challenged policies set in Albany and Washington. Voters deserve to know exactly what they can expect from candidates. They deserve every opportunity for a full discussion of the issues."
Nice try, Senator. Either you think your constituents are dumb or that they don't deserve to see the candidates debate some rather damn serious issues in a time of crisis.
Or both.
On the web: David Nachbar for State Senate. |
