The decision came after more than a week of efforts by Hobbs, who is now secretary of state, to switch the debate to separate half-hour interviews with the moderator. The Political Clean Elections Commission, which has conducted debates for two decades with candidates for state and legislative office, flatly rejected that proposal Thursday. Instead, the committee urged its staff to work with Hobbs to make minor changes to the discussion and gave her a week to reach an agreement. Hobbs’ campaign manager’s statements to commissioners made it seem unlikely that a deal would be reached. Instead, Nicole DeMont echoed the campaign’s concerns that the Lake debate would “just create another spectacle, like we saw in the first GOP debate. But on top of that, I would just add, you can’t debate a conspiracy theory, and in the last debate, he brought the debate back to the 2020 election at least a dozen times.” The GOP primary debate featured four candidates who almost immediately devolved into a free-for-all talking and interrupting each other. The statement released by Hobbs’ campaign on Sunday largely reiterated those points and said she “remains willing and eager to participate in a town hall-style event,” like the one held by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry last week, where along with Lake questioned separately. Lake had already agreed to the debate and its format, and called out Hobbs for refusing to participate, calling her a “coward”. She also said she was ready to go on stage with Hobbs at any time, let her pick the moderator and write all the questions. Hobbs also skipped the Clean Elections debate with her Democratic primary opponent, Marco Lopez. Instead, he interviewed himself. Lake campaign spokesman Ross Trumble said the campaign expects the same arrangement, though that was not certain Sunday night. “Carrie will keep her promise to the voters and the debate,” Trumble said in a statement. “The empty chair across from her will show the people of Arizona how little Katie Hobbs cares about them.” Candidates across the nation are skipping traditional televised debates this year, with some Republicans refusing to participate as they shun mainstream media they see as biased, and Democrats like Hobbs pointing to tough GOP primary debates as a reason to avoid them. The Clean Elections Commission’s citizen debates have been a must-watch campaign show for years. The governor’s scheduled Oct. 12 debate was to be moderated by Ted Simons, a veteran interviewer who has overseen countless Clean Elections debates since joining Arizona PBS as host of the public affairs show “Arizona Horizon” in 2007. Except from Arizona PBS, television and radio stations across the state were scheduled to broadcast and stream the gubernatorial debate on their websites. All other statewide candidates have agreed to participate in the Clean Elections televised debate series, including Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who will debate Republican Blake Masters on Oct. 6.
