Posted on 08/31/2002 9:32:38 AM PDT by DCBryan1
Pryor declines invitation to debate Hutchinson on Meet the Press
BY MICHAEL ROWETT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
The Mark Pryor campaign turned down Friday an opportunity to appear on the nationally televised Meet the Pressprogram with his U.S. Senate opponent, incumbent Tim Hutchinson.
Michael Teague, Pryor’s campaign spokesman, denied that he was ducking a confrontation with the senator.
"I mean we just debated last week, and we’ll debate again in October," Teague said. "I’m sure there’ll be some other venues the two candidates will be together at."
He said "venues" meant debates and he was talking about more than the Oct. 14 debate scheduled to be aired by the Arkansas Educational Television Network.
Pryor, the state attorney general who is the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat, prefers Arkansas venues with Arkansas moderators and Arkansas reporters doing the questioning because they "know the issues in Arkansas," Teague said.
(IN OTHER WORDS< THE DEMOCRATS WANT SOFTBALL-LOCAL QUESTIONS).
He said the NBC News program was being notified by telephone. The decision to say "no" to Meet the Press came after Hutchinson questioned why Pryor, if he truly wants more debates, hadn’t responded to the Meet the Press invitation. The Hutchinson campaign had accepted the invitation to debate Pryor on the program sometime in October.
Pryor and Hutchinson, the Republican nominee, first debated Tuesday at Hendrix College in Conway.
"On Sunday morning, most folks will be in church," Teague said Wednesday of appearing on Meet the Press. "How many people are you going to have watching in Arkansas?" Meet the Press Executive Producer Betsy Fischer, in a letter to Teague on Friday, said she was writing to "take exception" to Teague’s published comments.
The program, which airs locally at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on KARK-TV, Channel 4, is watched every week by more than 150,000 Arkansans and 5 million viewers nationwide, Fischer’s letter said.
Additionally, the morning telecast is repeated at 9 p.m. CDT Sunday on the CNBC cable network, and any local NBC affiliate that wanted to tape the telecast and broadcast it later Sunday as a public service could do so, Fischer said.
In an interview, she said Meet the Pressis interested in the Arkansas U.S. Senate race because it’s viewed as one of the most competitive in the nation.
Viewers of Meet the Press "are among the most politically astute — those most likely to vote in an election," she wrote. "It seems these are exactly the kind of people your campaign would want to address... surely, this could only help attract support for your campaign effort."
Fischer added that, given complaints by some political candidates about the lack of free media time, "it seems worth noting the unwillingness of some candidates to make themselves available when a national television network offers such time via a substantive debate on the issues."
Teague said, "We’re not running for a Senate seat in the District of Columbia; we’re running for a Senate seat in Arkansas. For us to do [Meet the Press], we’d miss the opportunity to stay here [in Arkansas] and do other things."
(LIKE DODGE SERIOUS QUESTIONS)
Hutchinson campaign spokesman Anthony Hulen contended that Pryor may be dodging the invitation out of political expediency.
"Perhaps Mark fears retaliation from his out-of-state liberal friends who might see him on national TV falsely portraying himself as a conservative like he did Tuesday night," Hulen said.
"If Mark Pryor really wanted more debates like he says, he would accept this invitation, as Senator Hutchinson did, instead of continuing to hide behind his handlers," Hulen said.
Hutchinson and Pryor meet in the Nov. 5 election.
All I can say of Mark Pryor is Bwahk Bwahk Bwahk Bwahk!
Isn't David Pryor the idiot who said "What HARM could he do...he's only got 2 more years to serve out as President".....on Clinton's impoochment....Hey Davey....WHAT HARM....WHAT HARM????? How about 9-11....what abut all of the corporate scandals and the stock market BUBBLE that he was propping up and the PHONY numbers for the Economy!!!
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