California is the largest state by population in the United States.
It boasts one of the most powerful economies in the world.
Is it too much to ask for candidates seeking statewide office to debate their challengers ahead of the upcoming elections?
With ballots set to go out just one months from now, debates have failed to materialize.
News anchor Elex Michaelson of Fox 11 Los Angeles said via Twitter that he’s offered to host a debate between Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Sen. Brian Dahle, but the governor’s team has rejected all such offers.
Obviously, Gov. Newsom is widely expected to win by a comfortable margin in November. But Californians deserve an opportunity to see for themselves a contrast in leadership styles and ideas. If the governor is confident his ideas are sound, he should have the confidence to contrast them on a stage with his opponent.
After all, it’s not like they’re running for some trivial office. The governor of California is a powerful position, especially when armed with emergency powers as Newsom has wielded for the last two and a half years.
Likewise, in the state controller’s race, Republican Lanhee Chen has called for a debate with Democrat Malia Cohen. “Perhaps she is more concerned about catering to Sacramento insiders than answering questions from California voters?” wondered Chen on Twitter about her refusal to debate.
In response to Chen’s calls for a debate, Cohen has preferred to bizarrely focus on abortion rights.
“We need a Controller who will uphold our state’s commitment to protecting access to reproductive health care,” she tweeted in response to Chen.
Nevermind, of course, that the office of the controller has essentially nothing to do with abortion policy, or that Chen is in fact pro-choice, or that abortion rights are already fully protected in the state of California.
Malia Cohen’s non-sequitur of response just shows she is your standard issue partisan, precisely the wrong profile for a fiscal watchdog position. It’s no wonder she doesn’t want to debate. Californians deserve better from candidates running for statewide office.