* Gov. Rauner wants as many as a dozen debates, according to the Sun-Times. JB Pritzker has only agreed to three…
“Pritzker is depriving Illinois voters across the state to ask meaningful questions because he knows he will not be able to answer them,” Rauner spokesman Alex Browning said.
Browning said the Rauner campaign has agreed to more than 10 debates in markets across the state, and he’s “willing to face questions from Illinoisans on all range of topics.”
But Pritzker’s camp says they’re just following Rauner’s own rules. The Republican participated in three debates when he ran for governor in 2014. […]
“It’s fascinating to me that Rauner is wanting to do any debates because you know normally the challenger wants to debate because the incumbent is ahead,” veteran Democratic consultant Kitty Kurth said. “I think this is a clear indication that even Rauner knows he is not ahead.” […]
Pritzker and Rauner will participate in the following debates: Sept. 20 in Chicago, sponsored by NBC 5, Telemundo, Union League of Chicago and Chicago Urban League; Oct. 3 in Chicago, sponsored by ABC 7, Univision, and League of Women Voters, and Oct. 11 in Quincy, sponsored by WGEM and the Illinois Broadcasters Association.
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** Sen. Sam McCann…
Unlike JB Pritzker, I accept. 12 opportunities to point out that I am the only candidate against taxpayer funded on-demand abortions while Bruce Rauner and JB Pritzker approve. 12 opportunities to point out that I am the only proven true pro-life candidate running for Governor. 12 opportunities to point out that I am the only proven candidate against illegal immigration. 12 opportunities to point out that I am the only proven candidate to protect the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment. 12 opportunities to point out that I am the only proven candidate against transgenders changing their birth certificates. 12 opportunities to point out that I am the only proven candidate to stand up for the working middle class. And, 12 opportunities to point out that I am the only proven candidate to truly represent all 102 counties. I think 12 times should do it.
- Anonymous - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:31 pm:
I guess JB doesn’t respect Southern Illinois enough to debate there.
- Retired Educator - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:32 pm:
When you are behind you ask for debates. Rauner has read the polls. Pritzker read them also.
- Perrid - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:32 pm:
12? That’s just silly
- Dance Band on the Titanic - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:33 pm:
Triple the number of debates Rauner participated in with Ives seems like plenty.
- wordslinger - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:33 pm:
Twelve? Geez, Rauner’s internals must be as bad as the publicly released polls.
- don the legend - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:34 pm:
In Quincy, yikes.
BTIA might want to think twice about that location.
- CharlieKratos - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:34 pm:
2 debates + 1 dance-off. “Breakin’2 Electric Boogaloo”-style.
- DarkHorse - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:34 pm:
Rauner and Harold must have the same political consultant - “I want 10+ debates, my opponent is chicken to debate”
- A Jack - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:34 pm:
Why does Rauner want 12 debates? Does he need that much practice before he wins one? Twelve debates just seems excessive.
- City Zen - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:35 pm:
So Bruce wants one debate a week? Seems excessive.
Five should be sufficient. At minimum they should be able to squeeze one more in between Oct 11 and the election.
- JS Mill - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:35 pm:
How many Ives debates were there? And she probably finished closer to Rauner than Rauner will be to Pritzker.
This seems appropriate for the governor…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuNJq_wI1ns
- Anonchalant - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:36 pm:
I mean, did any of Brucie’s staff see his performance at the Trib Editorial Board? They are that desperate? Rauner is quickly becoming unhinging (see: comments on DC) and it seems to me that it’s much more likely that he will step in it then make any real progress against JB.
- JS Mill - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:38 pm:
=Browning said the Rauner campaign has agreed to more than 10 debates in markets across the state, and he’s “willing to face questions from Illinoisans on all range of topics.”=
Well of course he does, we already know his answer to every question………”.Because Madigan (exclamation mark).”
- Anonymous - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:38 pm:
=But Pritzker’s camp says they’re just following Rauner’s own rules.=
If you want 3 debates, say you want 3 debates, don’t make up you’re following the “Rauner Rule”.
- TaylorvilleTornado - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:40 pm:
I think one is enough. Rauner is just going to shriek “Madigan” at the top of his lungs for an hour.
- The dude - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:42 pm:
12 is about 8 too many
- Charry - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:42 pm:
5 would be a better number. one in each region of the state.
- Anonymous - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:42 pm:
Echoing Retired Educator - challenging your opponent to an excessive number of debates is a weak hand move.
- Johnny O'Veritas - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:46 pm:
Let’s skip the debates. I know everythin’ that needs knowin’ right now. Let’s get to votin’. 12 debates. Might as well chew sandpaper til November.
- Real - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:46 pm:
Too late in the game. 3 debates is good enough. Rauner thinks he is so important. He gave Ive’s only 1 debate yet he thinks he deserves 12 debates. Stick to 3 debates JB. Rauner is desperate.
- Not Again - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:46 pm:
My vote would be 0 debates and just have a hunger games style match for all four and maybe throw in Ives for the ratings.
- Bruce (no not him) - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:50 pm:
3 or 12, I won’t watch any. Who doesn’t know who they’re voting for(or against)?
- TopHatMonocle - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:51 pm:
This isn’t 1858 where you have to travel around the state to have debates so that people can see them. These new fangled things called television and internet seem to disseminate information pretty well. Also nobody, even CapFax commenters, would want to watch 12 debates with these guys.
- Arsenal - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 2:53 pm:
There’s some mileage in the “my opponent won’t debate me” complaint, but 12 complaints with 12 weeks left to go is so transparently silly Rauner is probably squandering it.
- Pundent - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:01 pm:
=He gave Ive’s only 1 debate yet he thinks he deserves 12 debates.=
Actually he didn’t give Ives any debates. He did a single sit down with the Trib Editorial Board and that was it. Rauner wants 12 chances to burn the word Madigan into our brains. I think giving him 3 or 4 is plenty.
- BlueDogDem - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:02 pm:
What are we gonna debate? Who can spend the most? Who can give more to k-12? Who can find the most waste, fraud and abuse? Same old same old from repubs and dems.
- FormerParatrooper - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:02 pm:
All they need is the debate in Quincy, bring the families of the veterans who died to sit front and center.
- Centennial - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:03 pm:
Rauner’s numbers are as bad or worse than the latest poll.
- Veil of Ignorance - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:07 pm:
How about one debate for every percentage point he trails Pritzker? This stuff is silly given how much money they both have to go up on TV and get their message out there to voters. Might as well ask for a sumo match while you’re at it…of course my money would be on JB in that one.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:08 pm:
The 3 debates are fine.
I could go for a 4th if the whole debate was fact-checked in real time, no “letting go” of actual phony answers.
- Bogey Golfer - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:13 pm:
These events are not open to the public. They are hosted by some non-partisan group (e.g. League of Women Voters), the questions typically come from a rep of some interest group and seldom by Joe or Jane Average. Doesn’t matter where it is held or how many.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:15 pm:
So… the 4th debate could be like…
Rauner: My immigrant grandfather
(Buzz)
“Sorry, your grandfather was born here.”
Not much debating would be done, but it would be entertaining.
- Person 8 - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:19 pm:
How many debates did he give Ives…
- Perrid - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:20 pm:
Does Rauner want Sam McCann at these 12 debates? How about Kash?
- Robert the Bruce - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:22 pm:
Love the OW 4th debate idea. Add a 30 second muted microphone after the buzz?
A 5th debate, moderated by Jim Edgar, might be fun.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:25 pm:
===A 5th debate, moderated by Jim Edgar, might be fun.===
“Edgar Fellows”… more teaching.
I’d be on-board with this debate idea too.
- Robert the Bruce - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:26 pm:
It does seem like an unforced error for Rauner to agree to Quincy as the site of the only debate outside of Chicago.
- Chunga - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:27 pm:
But he has 12 new outfits to try on. Butcher, Baker, Candlestick maker, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, mountain climber, army man and jungle anthropologist
- Anonymous - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:32 pm:
In hindsight I wish JB would have publicly stated (last winter) that he’d so as many debates in the General as his opponent did in the primary. then it would truly be Rauner hoisted by his own petard.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:33 pm:
==They are hosted by some non-partisan group (e.g. League of Women Voters), the questions typically come from a rep of some interest group and seldom by Joe or Jane Average. ==
I don’t think this is correct. Most gubernatorial debates are hosted by media organizations with questions coming from whatever moderator(s) they assign. This is why he wants so many. Rauner knows the corrupt, republican owned and operated media outside of Chicago would lob him softballs while peppering Pritzker with Madigan questions:
“Mr. Governor, sir, can you please tell the audience all of the great things you have done to fight corruption in Illinois?”
“Mr. Pritzker - how do you expect voters to believe you’re not controlled by Mike Madigan when you’re both members of the same political party? And as a follow up, why haven’t you called for his imprisonment over his obvious conflicts of interest when it comes to property taxes?”
- Anon - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:33 pm:
We can always add more debates later.
Plus, I’m not sure how much I can believe a claim made by Rauner about the number of debates they actually wanted.
- Leatherneck - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:35 pm:
In honor of the Bicentennial and the 160th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, if Rauner wants 12 debates, then I would have insisted that one in each of the 1858 debate cities (Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton). Then go with the two in Chicago, one or two in Springfield, and the last 1-2 in Champaign-Urbana and/or the suburbs.
- Leigh John-Ella - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:36 pm:
McCann challenges Rauner to 57 debates all south of I-72.
14 debates in Crawford County seems fair, right?
- Sue - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:41 pm:
Rauner really seems pretty untethered from reality
- BlueDogDem - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:47 pm:
Maybe one of the questions former governor Edgar could ask is,” how high do taxes have to go to pay for this ramp thingy?”
- Reserved - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:47 pm:
Rauner has the money to do locally televised town halls on his own across the state which would be a better option for him. It looks like he wants Pritzker answering questions from citizens instead of media types, which is probably Pritzker’s biggest problem south of I-80.
A few town halls with pre-approved questions is the exposure Rauner’s message needs and can’t get from one on one debates.
- Anonymous - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:49 pm:
Bruce, sit down, shut up, your done, your toast. Go back to the private sector and ruin some more business.
- Texas Red - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:50 pm:
Now, if 3 turned up to be 12,
I don’t mind, I don’t mind.
If all the hippies cut off all their hair,
I don’t care, I don’t care….
- Huh? - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:50 pm:
JB call his bluff. I would love to see 1.4% step on his tongue 12 times.
- Cheaper By the Dozen - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:51 pm:
The only reason I can see for a dozen debates is so Rauner has enough time to yell “MADIGAN” 15,000 times on camera.
- Dupage Bard - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:51 pm:
Debate Rauner as many times as he debated Ives. Sounds fair
Rauner’s numbers must be even worse than what NBC had.
You want 12 debates?
First off no one watches Governor debates. Literally they want 12 opportunities for JB to say something wrong. No offense Rauner crew but you didn’t have debates with Jeanne because you knew he would stick his foot in his mouth just like at the Trib debate. What makes you think your boss won’t fall off the edge and come off sounding like a complete moron? He did in that Trib interview and his previous Fox interview for a national audience.
Worst Republican governor ever at this point.
- Trump2020 - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:51 pm:
if we could only limit Oswego Willy to three comments per article…
- Skeptic - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:56 pm:
“Why does Rauner want 12 debates?” Are they giving away pins that he can put on his biker vest?
- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 3:58 pm:
What is this, 1845? You need to whistle stop across the state so that everyone can see the debate? Wow, I am not a Pritzker fan but Rauner just keeps sounding more and more clueless.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 4:10 pm:
===if we could only limit Oswego Willy to three comments per article…===
Happy Friday.
- Quizzical - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 4:12 pm:
How many times can Pritzker (or anyone else) hear ‘because Mike Madigan’ or ‘controlled by Mike Madigan’? At some point everybody has to set a limit. Three debates seems reasonable, certainly more reasonable than twelve.
- Earnest - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 4:19 pm:
>Plus, I’m not sure how much I can believe a claim made by Rauner about the number of debates they actually wanted.
This. But it makes for a talking point I suppose.
- Anonymous - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 4:23 pm:
12 really, that is too much
Have one in the north, one in central, and one in southern Illinois, problem solved
- Nick Name - Friday, Aug 24, 18 @ 4:31 pm:
Make an impossible demand, blame your opponent when he balks: it’s the same old, same old with Gov. Gaslight.
- Suburban Mom - Monday, Aug 27, 18 @ 4:24 pm:
“12 opportunities to point out that I am the only proven true pro-life candidate running for Governor. … 12 opportunities to point out that I am the only proven candidate to protect the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment.”
Cognitive dissonance much?