On Wednesday, after discovering that Arizona PBS had broken “from our shared practice,” the Clean Elections Commission canceled a planned interview with gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. The interview was scheduled in lieu of an in-person debate between Lake and her challenger Katie Hobbs.
The commission announced the cancellation on Twitter.
Today, the Clean Elections Commission was surprised to learn that the Arizona PBS has committed to host a Gubernatorial candidate Q & A next week with Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. This morning’s announcement came the day a longtime scheduled Gubernatorial event was to be taped and broadcast featuring candidate Kari Lake.
This decision is disappointing, especially following the multiple attempts on behalf of all the partners involved in producing this year’s General Election debates, to organize a traditional Gubernatorial debate between the two candidates.
As a matter of state law and under the direction of its Commissioners, Clean Elections proceeded with the obligation to arrange a Q & A interview for candidate who agreed to debate but whose opponent elected not to participate, which is how the Q & A with candidate Kari Lake scheduled for tonight on Arizona PBS came to fruition.
The Commission and Arizona PBS followed the same process during the 2022 and 2018 Gubernatorial primaries. Thus, today’s announcement broke our shared practice.
Given today’s events, and the need to obtain additional information regarding the last-minute developments, the Commission will postpone tonight’s Q & A on Arizona PBS and will identify a new venue, partner, and date when the interview will be broadcast.
The Commission’s commitment and obligation under state law is to produce unbiased, fair opportunities for candidates to speak to voters. We intend to make good on that commitment and our commitment to transparent decision-making process.
Lake called a press conference immediately in front of ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication to address the situation.
“I’m disappointed tonight. We have cleared our schedule twice now for this debate. Unfortunately, I’m running against a coward who’s afraid to stand on a debate stage and talk about what she wants to do for Arizona. Unfortunately, PBS and ASU have done a backroom deal with that coward to give her airtime that she does not deserve. They have canceled this, and it’s absolutely wrong,” said Lake.
Lake has been willing to work with the Hobbs’ campaign and the Commission, even going so far as to offer additional incentives, including allowing Hobbs to know the questions in advance and even selecting the moderator herself.
Hobbs won the Democratic primary in spite of dodging the Clean Elections debate with her Democratic primary challenger, Marco Lopez, claiming she had Covid.
Hobbs’ refusal to debate Lake has earned her the scorn of both Republicans and Democrats alike.