UDATED 8/23@ 4:35 p.m. — Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, now running as a Democrat to succeed retiring Gov. Jay Inslee, reportedly never committed to an Oct. 11 debate with Republican candidate Dave Reichert, leaving many Evergreen State voters stunned and disappointed.
MyNorthwest.com is reporting that Ferguson’s campaign is now stating it never committed to the debate. It was earlier reported, evidently erroneously, that Ferguson had pulled out of the debate.
The digital news organ noted, “The Ferguson campaign shared email correspondence it exchanged with Seattle CityClub showing the non-profit asked about committing 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.’”
According to the MyNorthwest report, Ferguson and Reichert will participate in two scheduled debates, the first on Tuesday, Sept. 10 in “a televised event organized by The Seattle Times and KING 5 News,” and eight days later on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at the Association of Washington Business’ (AWB) Policy Summit in Spokane.
Seattle CityClub Executive Director Alicia Crank, in a message posted on “X” (formerly Twitter) initially issued a statement expressing her disappointment.
“In the end, it’s the voters who will miss out on hearing from the candidates and an open exchange of ideas,” Crank said. “We have always emphasized our history of hosting fair and balanced candidate debates in the name of advancing democracy and educating citizens about the candidates and policy issues impacting their daily lives,” she concluded. “We are hugely disappointed by this turn of events, but look forward to hosting three other candidate debates in September with candidates for Seattle City Council, Attorney General and Superintendent of Public Instruction.”
Reichert, the former King County sheriff and a seven-term member of Congress representing the state’s 8th Congressional District, also posted on “X” the following statement: “I committed to this debate and am disappointed for the voters of Washington that Bob Ferguson is refusing to debate our very different visions for our state. I urge him to change course and join me on stage on October 11.”
The debate was to have taken place in Ellensburg, a college town in east-central Washington.
Ferguson is widely known as the attorney general who pushed for restrictive gun control legislation in recent years. He cheered passage of legislation banning the sale of so-called “large-capacity magazines” in 2022 and a ban on so-called “assault weapons” in 2023. He has worked with the billionaire-backed and Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the state’s wealthiest gun prohibition lobbying group.
The announcement came days after a Lynnwood community newspaper and several conservative commentators exposed a scandal involving a quiet, and unsuccessful, effort by a liberal group to remove four popular conservative initiatives from the November ballot.
Those initiatives are expected to energize tens of thousands of conservative voters to return their ballots, which might also find votes for Reichert. He was the headliner at a big event in King County last weekend.
The election is expected to bring Washington’s traditionally lethargic gun owners out of the shadows this year because of Ferguson’s anti-gun policies. In the primary, Ferguson pulled 44.88 percent of the vote with 884,268 votes while Reichert came in at 27.48 percent, with 541,533 votes. But the primary did not see a big turnout of voters.
As the sitting attorney general for the past 12 years, Ferguson should have support from law enforcement. However, Reichert has the endorsements of an overwhelming majority of current and former county sheriffs. He’s also been endorsed by the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs (WACOPS), Pierce County Deputy Sheriff’s Independent Guild, King County Police Officers Guild (KCPOG), Bellevue Police Officers’ Guild and Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG).
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