On Sunday, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs’ campaign notified the Citizens Clean Elections Commission that she would not be participating in any debate with the Republican candidate Kari Lake. Hobbs was given seven days to work with the Commission staff on acceptable terms for a traditional style debate rather than the separate townhalls she proposed.
Hobbs’ campaign manager Nicole DeMont released a statement on Sunday attacking Lake.
“Secretary Hobbs remains willing and eager to participate in a town hall style event, such as the forum she participated in last week in which Arizonans were able to hear directly from Sec. Hobbs about her in-depth policy plans and how she would approach governing this state,” wrote DeMont. “Unfortunately, debating a conspiracy theorist like Kari Lake — whose entire campaign platform is to cause enormous chaos and make Arizona the subject of national ridicule — would only lead to constant interruptions, pointless distractions and childish name-calling. Arizonans deserve so much better than Kari Lake, and that’s why we’re confident Katie Hobbs will be elected our next governor.”
Lake called Hobbs a “coward,” and Lake is not the only one who is critical of Hobbs.
This weekend on Meet The Press, in response to host Chuck Todd’s surprise at Lake’s strength as a candidate, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report said, “being on television as she – Kari Lake was – for 20 years, there is a sense from voters that ‘I know this person and whatever is said in attack ads etc., well maybe that is just politics because she can’t be like that because she has been in my living room for the last 20 years.’”
Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist said the race is “neck-and-neck” because Katie Hobbs ” is not a good candidate.”
Brutal @MeetThePress panel mocking @KatieHobbs this morning
CHUCK TODD:@KariLake is “stronger than I thought”
AMY WALTER:
“There is a sense from voters that I know this person [Kari Lake]”MATT GORMAN:
The #AZGov race is “neck-and-neck … @KatieHobbs is not a good candidate” pic.twitter.com/GjghK1jbtD— Brian Anderson (@AZBrianAnderson) September 11, 2022
In her performance at a recent Chamber of Commerce townhall event, in which the two candidates appeared separately, Hobbs struggled to answer questions and suffered from an almost adolescent sounding voice, while Lake took her usual commanding tone and pledged to cut income taxes. When the event ended, Hobbs left immediately while Lake remained to answer questions from those at the event and from the media.
Lake had already agreed to debate and as Hobbs appeared more and more unwilling, Lake offered additional incentives, including allowing Hobbs to know the questions in advance and even to select the moderator.
Hobbs won the Democratic primary in spite of dodging the Clean Elections debate with her Democratic primary challenger, Marco Lopez, claiming she had Covid.