The so-called "debate over debates" seems to have spilled over from the GOP Senate primary and found its way to the left side of the aisle where former Tucson Vice Mayor Rodney Glassman is in a primary contest with -- among others -- former New Times columnist John Dougherty.
Dougherty issued a press release this afternoon claiming Glassman hasn't responded to several requests he'd made to debate -- a claim Glassman's campaign tells New Times it doesn't dispute.
According to Dougherty's campaign, on June 2, requests to debate were hand-delivered not only to Glassman's campaign offices in both Phoenix and Tucson but to the campaign offices of the two other Democratic candidates, Scottsdale attorney Randy Parraz and Arizona State University administrator Cathy Eden.
Dougherty asked to have an answer by 5 p.m. yesterday.
Dougherty's press assistant, Kate Nolan, tells New Times the other candidates each responded -- and accepted -- almost immediately. Glassman, however, didn't even acknowledge the request.
"We never heard a word from Glassman or his campaign," she says.
After Glassman failed to respond by the deadline last night, Dougherty extended the deadline until noon today.
Once again, Rodney never responded.
Glassman's campaign spokesman Dawn Teo tells New Times the requests were received by the campaign but insists nobody is "ducking" anything.
"We're not ducking debates -- we're not turning anything down," Teo says. "We're three hours past [Dougherty's] arbitrary deadline and he's making a story where there is none -- this is silly."
Silly or not, how hard is it to pick up a phone and respond to a request? It took us all of two minutes to get someone from the Dougherty campaign on the horn.