Democratic Party nominee Katie Hobbs has finally agreed to face off with Republican Party nominee Kari Lake in a debate of sorts. Surprisingly, Hobbs has opted for the pricey 2022 Gubernatorial Candidate Forum held by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, while expressing reluctance to participate in the more widely covered taxpayer-funded Citizen’s Clean Elections debate.
At a time when more Arizonans are struggling to deal with inflation and rising prices on food and gas for their vehicles, the corporatists at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce are charging $60 for a single ticket for the September 7 event.
In addition to the debate, that $60 will get attendees “cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and a special presentation from our Presenting Sponsor, Amazon.”
The event is billed as “an opportunity to hear from the candidates directly about their policy priorities ahead of the General Election.”
Chamber members get in for a discounted price of $40 per person.
According to AZFamily:
“Republican nominee Kari Lake has made it clear she’s willing to debate her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs anywhere, anytime. But it’s a different story for Hobbs…. The Hobbs campaign says they want to participate. However, after what they saw in the Republican primary debate, they have concerns, saying, “We will not engage in a circus that insults and embarasses (sic) Arizonans. We do not need to look further than the last debate Kari Lake participated in for such an example.” Lake’s campaign told Arizona’s Family she has no issues facing Hobbs on stage.”
It is unclear why Hobbs would deny Arizona a free opportunity to hear from her, but an expensive event would be acceptable. One political consultant, who asked not to be named so as to avoid putting himself in harm’s way with Hobb’s campaign, believes that Hobbs is hiding. “If she never debates, the whole world will know she’s hiding from debating Lake, so she wants to skip debates that would be televised or available online and she’ll do as few as possible in places where the audience size is limited — away from undecided voters.”
Still, the consultant felt that the optics for Hobbs were bad, as was her choice of host organizations. “Running to get the approval of big business seems very off-brand for someone like Katie Hobbs. Going to a Chamber event after spending years voting against so many of their priority bills also seems like a strategic blunder. I mean Lake gets to sit there the whole night and throw Hobbs’ NO votes back at her.”
This isn’t the first time Hobbs has tried to dodge a debate. In fact, she successfully dodged the Citizen’s Clean elections debate in the Democratic Primary, but politicos were divided on whether that was to conceal her weakness as a debater or if she simply wanted to deny her rivals any coverage at all, given her large lead in primary polls.
On Friday, Lake issued an official challenge to Hobbs to debate her.
“It’s so typical of hypocritical career politicians like Katie Hobbs to talk a big game about me on the safety of an MSNBC panel only to avoid debating with me on stage because she’s afraid she might lose,” said Lake in a press release. “Ducking out of debates may have worked in her primary, but it won’t work against me. If Hobbs thinks she can spend the next 11 weeks hiding in her basement from her radical liberal record that’s way out of step with Arizona, she has another thing coming. I’ll join Hobbs on a debate stage any time, any place, in any format, with any questions. Come out, come out wherever you are, Katie. I’m not afraid to answer tough questions, and you owe it to the people of Arizona to do the same.”
In response to the news that Hobbs was refusing to debate again, Talonya Adams, tweeted, “This chick is our Secretary of State and has no respect or desire to participate in our democracy or election process.”
Adams twice prevailed in federal court against Hobbs and the Arizona Senate for retaliatory firing and racial discrimination. Adams was awarded $2.75 million in damages. Adams, who is a Black female and an attorney, represented herself in front of a jury regarding her 2015 termination which came after Adams provided the Senate Democratic leadership with documentation that she was paid about $30,000 less than colleagues of similar experience. Those colleagues were white and male.
Only in #Arizona: Anyone can be #AZGov. Go tell your kiddos.
This chick is our Secretary of State and has no respect or desire to participate in our democracy or election process. 👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/klQCHZSfe3
— Talonya Adams 🇺🇸 (personal acct) (@TalonyaAdams) August 19, 2022
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This article was updated at 12:53 August 19, 2022