The first gubernatorial debate of the general election is today, and one person will not be there.
Democratic nominee Bill White and Libertarian Kathie Glass, both lawyers, are scheduled to face off in a Kerrville Area League of Women Voters debate at 7 p.m. at the Cailloux Theatre in Kerrville.
The debate will be carried live on Kerrville’s KVHC-TV and will be streamed live on the station’s website.
Kerrville Area League President Donna Robinson said [Governor Rick] Perry was invited to attend but turned it down.
Perry’s spokesbot claimed it was because White hasn’t yet released a detailed accounting of the allowance he received as a kid, but we all know the real reason.
Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson called White’s decision to debate Glass a “mixed bag.”
The debate gives White the opportunity to promote a candidate who may draw votes from Perry in the general election and highlight the fact that Perry will not debate. But Jillson said it also gives White’s campaign an air of desperation.
“It caters to the idea that they are a little frantic and are taking the eye off the ball, which is Rick Perry,” Jillson said.
All due respect, Cal, but I’m pretty sure White is going to spend his entire allotment talking about Perry, Perry’s miserable failure of a record as Governor, and the fact that Perry didn’t have the stones to show up and talk about his record. I’m not sure how that counts as “taking the eye off the ball”, but whatever.
Bill White’s camp is frantic? Is Cal watching the same campaign as the rest of us? How is Rick Perry not showing up to a debate a win for Rick Perry? A guy in a chicken suit taunted him gosh sakes.
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