Political junkies can watch a debate triple-header tonight, or as much of three different matchups as they can stand.

The second presidential debate, this one a Town Hall style matchup, starts tonight at 6 p.m. Pacific. The 90-minute debate is live on the three major networks, the cable news channels and C-Span. If you have the TV on, you'll actually have to work a little bit not to see it.

At 8 p.m., the final Washington gubernatorial debate takes place in Seattle at KING-TV, and will be carried in Spokane on KREM-TV Channel 2, which is part of the Belo network. At 9 p.m., KSPS-TV Channel 7 will air the U.S. Senate debate; it was taped last Friday afternoon (our story is here) and aired in Seattle that evening, but this is the first time it has been broadcast in Spokane. (Editor's note: An early version of this post listed the wrong time for the Senate debate.)

Democrats are gathering to watch the presidential and gubernatorial debate at the Obama campaign Spokane field office, 239 W. Main. No word yet on a Republican gathering to watch the festivities.

On the eve of Washington's next gubernatorial debate, a video featuring Republican Rob McKenna doing Gangnam style dancing apparently has gone viral.

That's according to Geek Wire which also suggests McKenna may have an edge on capturing the dork vote with his performance at a Global Korean Day celebration in Seattle last weekend.

Not all reviews are positive, however. The candidate's wife, Marilyn McKenna, tweeted that one child says it takes embarassment of one's parents to a whole new level, and another is offering her $10 to never do this again.

McKenna will debate Democrat Jay Inslee at 9 p.m. Thursday in a Seattle meeting that will air on KREM-TV in Spokane, as well as most broadcast stations in Seattle. It will start about an hour after the vice presidential debate and the “post-game” analysis by television talking heads. 

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell will debate her Republican challenger, state Sen. Mike Baumgartner, at least once this fall.

The Cantwell campaign announced it has agreed to an Oct. 12 debate in Seattle at KCTS, the public television station. It will be taped, and shown on other public television stations around the state. The station and the League of Women Voters of Seattle, which are co-sponsoring the debate, will each provide a moderator.

Up to this point, the Cantwell campaign had been, to say the least, noncommittal about debates. She'd do some unspecified number, at some unspecified time, her spokesman said last month.

This, of course, has frustrated the Baumgartner campaign, whose candidate once proposed a debate in each of Washington's 39 counties, but later pared down the challenge to 10, spread around the state.

The Cantwell campaign remains noncommittal about more debates, saying in the announcement press release it “continues to review a number of outstanding invitation” but insists it is happy to fit the Seattle debate into her busy schedule.

“While Senator Cantwell's  focus remains squarely on fighting to pass legislation like the Veterans Job Corps Act and an extension of the sales tax deduction, she looks forward to discussing her record of tireless advocacy for Washington jobs, from apples to aerospace, along with her vision ot grow jobs and boost Washington exports in the future,” spokesman Kelly Steele said.

Baumgartner has something else in mind besides some salutory comments about Cantwell's “tireless advocacy.”  Responding to the fact that she had finally “conceded that she has a responsibility to Washington's voters” to debate, he suggested in a press release the debate start on another area: foreign policy.

“She needs to explain her record in the Middle East and her support of the war in Afghanistan,” he said.

Baumgartner is still pushing for more debates, but with days falling off the calendar toward the Election, he's winnowed it down to a total of three: one in Spokane and one in Southwest Washington to go with the Seattle debate.

Some people think Clint Eastwood's 12-minute schtick with an empty chair at last week's Republican National Convention was great theater. Others think it was bizarro sad.

Your opinion may depend on your political leanings.

Republican Mike Baumgartner, the state senator from Spokane hoping to  unseat U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, is apparently a fan. So much so that his campaign is staging its own Eastwood moment on Friday, announcing that Baumgartner will debate an empty chair at  the Spokane Republicans Breakfast Club.

Baumgartner has been frustrated for months at Cantwell's refusal to commit to debates. At one point, he proposed one debate per county, which would be 39; he has since lowered the number to 10. Last week, her campaign said they would debate, but declined to say when, where or how many times.

So at 7 a.m. Friday at the Riverview Thai Restaurant, 1003 E. Trent, he will debate an empty chair, the campaign announced this morning.

“Participating in a debate during an election campaign is a civic duty of a public servant. It is admirable this empty chair is willing to serve the voters of Washington so graciously and without hesitation,” Baumgartner said in a press release.

This strategy is not without risks, of course. Suppose, for example, the empty chair were to win the debate?

Democrat Rich Cowan and Republican Mike Baumgartner seem to have a shared problem of getting the incumbents they want to unseat to debate with them as many times as they want. Or at all.

Cowan, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives against Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers, proposed 10 debates, one in each county for Eastern Washington's 5th Congressional District. McMorris Rodgers agreed to two, both in Spokane. One would be sponsored by Greater Spokane Inc., the other by KSPS-TV, which has handled a 5th District debate for years, even in those elections when no one else cared to.

Baumgartner has proposed 39 debates, one in each county of Washington state, against Democrat Maria Cantwell. So far, Cantwell hasn't agreed to any, although there are several invitations pending.

In replying to Cowan's letter requesting 10 debates, McMorris Rodgers used Cantwell as her leverage in accepting two: “I contemplated following the lead of our junior senator and only schedule debates with my opponent when she has scheduled debates with hers.”

But folks in Eastern Washingo deserve to hear a discussion of the issues, so she was agreeing to the GSI and KSPS invitations. “Additionally, if you are able to encourage Senator Cantwell to debate Mr. Baumgartner in all 39 counties, I would be happy to debate you in all 10 counties located in the 5th Congressional District. We could arrange our debates in tandem with senate debates as well.”

A spokesman for the Cantwell campaign said she has dozens of invitations for a variety of forums, debates and editorial boards, as well as “a large chunk of September” that will be taken up by the Senate's work schedule.

“We will debate,” Kelly Steele  said, but there's no commitment at this time on how many times, when or where. That will likely become clear in early September, he added.

This leaves us at Spin Control pondering the question of which is stranger: Ten debates in Eastern Washington, which would essentially be one a week between now and the election? 39 debates across the state, which would essentially  be one every other day between now and the election? Or one candidate conditioning her debate schedule on her opponent convincing a candidate for another office to debate an opponent of another party?

Feel free to weigh in, in the comment section.

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has decided to debate her Democratic opponent twice before the November election.

After this month's primary, Democrat Rich Cowan challenged McMorris Rodgers to debate him in each of the 5th Congressional District's 10 counties. After her town hall meeting on Thursday in Spokane, McMorris Rodgers said that she responded to Cowan in writing by agreeing to his request - but only if Washington's Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell agrees to debate her Republican rival in all 39 of Washington's counties.

So, in orther words, her answer was no — though it's worth noting that her decision to debate twice is twice as many as she agreed to in 2010.

A sign that Washington’s campaign season remains in the doldrums, despite the fact that ballots are in voters’ hands – or at least languishing under a pile of junk mail on some counter – arrived last week with the announcement two gubernatorial debates had been scheduled.
One will be in Vancouver at the end of August and another in Yakima in early October. This is great news, not solely because putting Jay Inslee and Rob McKenna on the same stage is instructive for voters and good theater for political junkies. These are also two places that often have little chance to get up close and personal with gubernatorial candidates, let alone host a debate.
If Spokane complains about being a second-class citizen in the eyes of some statewide campaigns, other parts of the state might rightfully note they are in steerage. (Information about the venues is in the post below.)
The oddest thing about the announcement . . .

To read the rest of this post, or to comment, go inside the blog.

Most Republican presidential candidates were in Las Vegas Tuesday night for the CNN debate. But what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas when you're running for president, and what's said in a presidential debate gets dissected before you get out of the auditorium at the Venetian and walk past the blackjack tables.

It was a pretty feisty debate, which opened with most candidates piling on Herman Cain, who is rising in the polls, and offered some spirited exchanges between Mitt Romney and Rich Perry. Hard to say who the winner was, but it's pretty clear the loser was moderator Anderson Cooper, who lost control of the debate at several points when the candidates tried talking over each other and wouldn't stop.

“I thought Republicans followed the rules,” he complained at one point. Get a grip, Anderson. Anyone who occupies the Oval Office doesn't have to play by the rules…a president gets to make  his or her own rules.

FactCheck.org has a rundown of some of the main points that came up in the debate, including Cain's 9-9-9 plan and Romney's Massachusetts health care plan.

John Ahern on 10-13-2010

John Driscoll 10-13-2010

Tonight’s annual televised Chase Youth Commission debate will have a noticeably absent candidate: John Ahern.

While Ahern has appeared with his opponent, incumbent Democratic State Rep. John Driscoll, at several other forums, Ahern also missed last month’s debate sponsored by the League of Woman Voters of the Spokane Area. That event was the only other televised forum that would have featured the two side-by-side. 

For the first time in decades, there will be no debate or face-to-face forum for candidates in Eastern Washington’s 5th Congressional District race because the incumbent is refusing to participate.

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ campaign said Wednesday she will not debate Democratic challenger Daryl Romeyn “due to scheduling constraints.”

McMorris Rodgers, seeking her fourth term in the House where she holds a GOP leadership position, declined this week to participate in the one proposed televised debate, a one-hour question-and-answer session next week on KSPS-TV and KXLY-TV, after more than a month of discussions.

She also turned down other forums with Romeyn, a novice candidate whom she outpolled nearly 5-to-1 in the primary and holds a 100-to-1 advantage in campaign contributions in the latest spending reports.

“I don’t think that’s the way American democracy works,” Romeyn, a former television weatherman and outdoor reporter, said. “They must feel putting her out there (in a debate) would do more damage than holding her back.”

McMorris Rodgers said Wednesday  her campaign waited to commit to debates because Romeyn was slow to file reports with the Federal Election Commission after the primary and “we weren’t sure how serious of a candidate he was.” The campaign later tried to identify some dates but couldn’t fit them in with other scheduled events…to read more, click here to go inside the blog.

The first — and so far only — televised debate to be scheduled in Washington’s U.S. Senate race takes place in Spokane next week.

Live, from the South Hill, it’s Thursday night.(That is to say, it will be at KSPS-TV Channel 7’s studio, and it will air live, starting at 7 p.m.)

Sponsors of the debate, KSPS and KXLY-TV, are soliciting questions from the public to throw into the mix of things the candidates will be asked. Some of the details of the format aren’t set yet, so it’s unclear how many questions will come from the public and how many from a panel of journalists.

But if you have a question you’re dying to ask one or both of them, you can send it in by clicking here.

Another televised debate has tentatively been planned for Seattle on KOMO-TV, but the details of that remain uncertain.

Ballots in Spokane County will start arriving in the mail on Thursday.

For those still wondering how the candidates stand on the issues, here’s a link where you can hear three Spokane City Council debates in full or broken into important topics by our very capable Web sage, Andrew Zahler. The hour-long debates were taped in The Spokesman-Review’s radio studio last month.

A different City Council debate will air 7 p.m. Thursday on KSPS.

Chances to catch the candidates, and the surrogates for some of the ballot issues, in the Nov. 3 election are going to be popping up with increasing frequency. The newspaper and the Spin Control Web site will try to keep up with them as they come in, but here’s some we know about right now:
Tuesday evening: Spokane Area League of Women Voters forum for Spokane Public School Board seats, Municipal Court, State House District 9, I-1033 and Ref. 71., starts 5:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Spokane City Hall.
Thursday morning: Candidates for all three Spokane City Council seats debate at a Greater Spokane Inc. starts 7:30 a.m., 801 W. Riverside
Thursday evening: Candidates for Northeast Spokane Council Seat 1, Municipal Court race between Tracy Staab and Bryan Whitaker, supporters and opponents of city Prop. 4, starts 6:30 p.m. at the restored Masonic Temple, Market Street at Diamond Avenue.
Oct. 5: Spokane Area League of Women Voters forum for Spokane City Council candidates, Fire Bond, other city ballot issues, starts 5:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers.