Lauren Hitt, the spokeswoman for Democratic challenger Ed FitzGerald, said the team with Republican incumbent John Kasich was having trouble coming to a consensus on how to handle debates. The FitzGerald team wanted to know Kasich’s debate decision by Sunday – but no agreement was reached.
Hitt said in a statement that reads in part, “With less than 50 days until the election, we feel we can reasonably assume that these delay tactics indicate Governor Kasich is unwilling to engage in a substantive debate about the issues affecting Ohioans.”
But Kasich’s team is blaming FitzGerald. Spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp writes in a statement that reads in part: “Despite good faith efforts on our side, the implosion of his campaign two months ago put a pause on debate negotiations, and then the recent abandonment by his party and give-away of his campaign cash seems to now have finished off any serious effort by their campaign altogether.”
Kasich’s campaign says it will now sit down for interviews with major news outlets and seek what it calls other avenues. While FitzGerald says he’ll honor the six debate appearances he accepted, there’s no word on whether those events will go on as scheduled.
