WA gubernatorial debate called off; Ferguson campaign states it never committed

Editors’ note: The campaign for Bob Ferguson reached out to MyNorthwest with additional information regarding the nature of the candidate’s commitment to the debate. That has led to this story being updated multiple times from its original version.

A gubernatorial debate set to take place Oct. 11 between Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Republican challenger and former King County Sheriff and U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert was canceled Thursday.

The Washington State Debate Coalition (WSDC), which was founded by non-profit Seattle CityClub in 2016, was set to host the event at Central Washington University in Ellensburg in  partnership with The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane and would have featured a panel of journalists asking the candidates questions.

Seattle CityClub distributed a press release Thursday announcing the cancellation of the debate and stated that “Ferguson withdrew from the event.”

Seattle CityClub Executive Director Alicia Crank said the cancellation decision “comes after months of planning and repeated conversations with the campaign to stay the course and proceed as planned with the event.” After the primary earlier this month where Ferguson and Reichert advanced to the November general election, Seattle CityClub said “additional communications were distributed” to the candidates.

From there, the release stated an additional note was sent Wednesday and the Ferguson campaign “rebuffed these requests and has formally withdrawn from the WSDC debate.”

“To say that I’m disappointed by this outcome would be an understatement,” Alicia Crank, executive director for Seattle CityClub, which hosts the debate, said. “In the end, it’s really Washington voters who will be most impacted by this decision. Debates are a vital part of our civic fabric, providing both candidates with an equal opportunity to share detailed perspectives about policy issues.

More on August primary: Ferguson, Reichert square off in Washington governor’s race

“By pulling out of the debate, voters will be denied the opportunity to hear a civil exchange of ideas, a fundamental characteristic of our democratic process,” Crank added.

Ferguson’s campaign responds; CityClub changes course

A spokesperson for the Ferguson campaign reached out to MyNorthwest Friday morning disputing that characterization, explaining in a statement that while it had been in discussions about participating in the debate, Ferguson never committed to the event. Therefore, Ferguson was not pulling out of or withdrawing from the debate.

The Ferguson campaign shared email correspondence it exchanged with Seattle CityClub showing the non-profit asked for a commitment to the debate since the Reichert campaign had done so earlier and Ferguson’s representative responded by writing, “Unfortunately, I am not sure we will be able to make this work.”

In a separate statement to members of the press Friday afternoon, Crank amended the original statement Seattle CityClub distributed Thursday and agreed with the representation the Ferguson campaign put forward.

“While the majority of the statement is accurate, the uses of ‘withdraw’ and ‘pulling out of the debate’ were too strong of a description to summarize what happened,” Crank states in the release.

She added that both campaigns “initially stated they would ‘save the date,’ and had proactive follow-up from each after the primary, we were told a formal confirmation would come if the other side did so first.”

Reichert’s campaign originally declined to participate in the debate, then changed course and elected to take part, Crank stated. Despite the latter development, Ferguson’s campaign chose not to participate in the debate anyway.

“I completely own and apologize for the terminology used in the midst of frustration to convey the final outcome, though the result from these interactions remains the same,” Crank’s statement reads.

Despite the Ellensburg event being eliminated, Ferguson and Reichert are set to square off in two other debates next month. The first debate will take place Tuesday, Sept. 10 in a televised event organized by The Seattle Times and KING 5 News. The second debate will occur Wednesday, Sept. 18 at the Association of Washington Business’ (AWB) Policy Summit in Spokane.

It is not known at this time if the candidates’ campaigns will come together and schedule a third debate ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.

Ferguson, Reichert move on to the general election

Ferguson and Reichert advanced to the November general election after receiving the most and second-most votes from the August primary. Twenty-eight candidates competed in the primary, with just four receiving more than 2% of the vote. The candidates have spent more than $7 million on local advertising for their respective campaigns.

Ferguson paced the way with 45% of the votes, pulling a total of nearly 885,000 votes. Reichert received 27% of the vote with more than 540,000 votes while Semi Bird finished with 11%. Bird has become a controversial candidate despite earning the endorsement from the Washington State Republican Party due to accusations of misrepresenting his military service and a 1993 guilty plea to bank larceny for using his father’s name and social security number on a credit application. Bird has stated that he has not been convicted of any crimes since and regrets his past actions.

More on Semi Bird: Semi Bird reprimanded for fraud against U.S. Army, after ‘stolen valor’ claims

Washington State Sen. Mark Mullet’s bid for governor ended after receiving just 6% of the vote.

Candidates haven’t been shy about going on the attack

Both Ferguson and Reichert have become well acquainted with each other throughout the gubernatorial race, lobbing plenty of claims and allegations against each other over the recent months.

Ferguson cited comments Reichert made about “the guy upstairs” being the only one responsible for controlling the weather as evidence that the former congressman doesn’t accept the science regarding climate change.

More from Reichert: Ferguson trying to ‘undermine my reputation’ as honest public servant

Ferguson has similarly publicly criticized Reichert over his views on the transgender community after Reichert said transgender men should not compete in women’s and girls’ sports and that Reichert will roll back protections for abortions within the state.

“These are statements that are taken out of context in the middle of a conversation that is given to the news media by my opponent, Bob Ferguson who, right now, has decided he doesn’t want to talk about his effort to support defunding of police,” Reichert fired back on “The Gee and Ursula Show.” “He doesn’t want to talk about the non-pursuit policy that he supported. He doesn’t want us to talk about supporting legalizing fentanyl on the streets of our cities.”

Reichert, a former King County Sheriff who was instrumental in the capture of the Green River Killer, scoffed at Ferguson’s claims that public safety is his “top priority.”

“I think if you were to read The Seattle Times, which I normally don’t, you would see that they even question his comments about now all of a sudden he’s on board with law and order,” Reichert said on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “He was behind the effort to defund the cops. He has been a part of the effort in the charge to legalize drugs on our street streets, especially fentanyl. He now recognizes there needs to be a change.”

Reichert addresses Biden exit, confronts Ferguson public safety claims: ‘His answer is money’

Ferguson has also made sure to keep Reichert’s relationship and feelings regarding former President Donald Trump in the public eye after The Seattle Times captured private audio of Reichert stating publicly supporting Trump would be a “nail in the coffin” for his candidacy as governor.

“Will you be voting for Donald Trump in the presidential election?” KIRO Newsradio guest host Travis Mayfield asked Reichert.

“That question seems to be almost comical,” Reichert responded. “No. 1, why does it matter who I’m going to vote for? Secondly, it seems that the Ferguson campaign is very focused on this. He’s got trackers on me. Every comment I make, his strategy is to take those comments out of context. So, it doesn’t matter who I’m voting for. I’m not going to nationalize this campaign by answering that question directly.”

Contributing: Steve Coogan

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.