Since then, it appears that the GOP nominee for Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson, is also refusing to debate her Democratic opponent, Jocelyn Benson. There will be a debate of sorts between the major candidates for attorney general, Democrat David Leyton and Republican Bill Schuette; they are going to be jointly interviewed by veteran Lansing broadcaster Tim Skubick on Sept. 24th.
Additionally, the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Michigan is attempting to sponsor debates between legislative candidates as well, so far with mixed success.
Candidates who are far ahead mostly want to try to avoid debates, if possible. This is for the same reason that a football team that is narrowly ahead plays it safe at the end of the game. They don’t want to make a mistake that could blow their lead.
Mistakes like that have been made. The biggest example I can remember happened sixteen years ago, in a debate, also moderated by Tim Skubick, between the two candidates for secretary of state.
Richard Austin, the Democrat, was heavily favored over his little-known GOP challenger, Candice Miller. He had been in office for twenty-four years, and had been reelected easily every time.
But there were whispers about his age - he was then eighty-one - and the rumors were he was getting too old. During the debate, a single incident seemed to confirm those rumors.
During a discussion about abortion, Austin proclaimed he was pro-life, something that startled the moderator, since Austin had always been in favor of a woman’s right to choose. After awhile, he interrupted his opponent’s answer to another question to reverse himself, saying something like “I get confused sometimes.”
Candice Miller handled this brilliantly. Instead of jumping down his throat, she patted him on the arm, and said something warm and consoling. With that, Democrats’ worst fears were realized.
There hasn't been a Democratic Secretary of State since. Four years later, there was a campaign for governor like none other in Michigan history. Geoffrey Fieger, whose name was usually preceded by brash, loudmouthed, obnoxious or flamboyant, won the Democratic nomination. Nobody should have been shocked. Party leaders, most notably chairman Mark Brewer, backed Larry Owen, a nice, but colorless attorney whose last electoral victory had been for a seat on the East Lansing City Council decades earlier.
Fieger spent millions on TV ads, and won the nomination. For years, he’d been spoiling for a fight with Republican John Engler, who was running for a third term. But Engler refused to debate him.
There was, however, some sympathy for the governor’s position, possibly because the Democrat was such a loose cannon, and frequently called Engler barnyard names.
To offer one mild example, he said that he would not accept that the governor was actually the father of his infant triplets unless they were revealed to have corkscrew tails.
Not surprisingly, Fieger didn‘t win. “Can you believe I lost to that fat nincompoop?” he said afterwords. Well...
We aren’t likely to have anything happen that wacky this year, but you never know. After all, we’ve still got seven weeks to go.
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