This
year’s candidates for Monroe County Executive haven’t yet faced off in a public
debate. But behind the scenes, the debate between their respective campaigns
over what form those public debates will take, and how many there will be, is
raging.
Democrat Bill Johnson’s campaign
manager, Travis Heider, says his candidate is willing to face off one-on-one
against Republican challenger Maggie Brooks “anywhere, at any time,” but that
the Brooks camp is hesitant to commit to debates because it’s reluctant to
subject the candidate to a substantive discussion of the issues.
Heider says Johnson has already
agreed to participate in 10 events, ranging from live network television and
radio debates to political gatherings hosted by the Rochester Teachers
Association, the Brighton Rotary, and others.
Furthermore, Heider says Johnson
will take part in those events regardless of whether Brooks is there. Several
news organizations, including NBC television affiliate Channel 10, “have
expressed interest in doing the ’empty chair’ thing,” Heider says. “I would
expect to see much of that.”
The Dems have been trying to arrange
debates since early April, but thus far, only one event involving both
candidates seems to be set: a live, televised debate on WROC-TV Channel 8 on
the evening of November 1.
Brooks’ debate schedule is being
handled by Monroe County Republican Chairman Stephen Minarik III. Minarik
confirmed that Brooks will take part in the Channel 8 debate, and says he’s
“very, very confident that there’ll be debates on all the major news outlets.”
“I think we’re in the process of
trying to accomplish something at [radio station] WHAM, Channel 10, [and] the
Voice of the Voter,” he says. (Voice of the Voter is a collaborative effort
between public radio station WXXI, the Democrat
and Chronicle, and WOKR-TV Channel 13.)
However, Brooks’ participation in
other one-on-one events, and her appearance at debates hosted by media that
Minarik considers less-than-major news outlets, is still questionable.
For example, the Rochester Teachers
Association has been trying to schedule the candidates for an October 10 debate
on educational issues for several weeks. “The Johnson camp has enthusiastically
accepted,” says John Pavone, co-chair of the association’s political education
committee. “The Brooks camp is keeping it under consideration and they’re
supposed to get back to me.”
Reached shortly before City went to press, Pavone said Minarik
had responded, saying he would tell Pavone whether or not Brooks will attend on
or before June 27.
That’s more of
a response than
Josh Bryant, news director for SUNY Brockport’s radio station (WBSU 89.1 FM)
has received, or likely will receive from Minarik.
Bryant has been trying to get the
candidates together for an October 1 debate that would be open to all media and
broadcast live on WBSU. (WBSU has a broadcast range of 50 miles, so roughly
500,000 people could potentially tune in, Bryant says. He adds that
listenership in Brockport, Spencerport, and other areas in the county’s
northwest quadrant is especially high “because the Rochester [stations] get
interference way out here.”)
When the station’s news department
initially contacted the campaigns in mid-May, “the Democrats were all for it,”
Bryant says. “They jumped on this and called us back.”
By contrast, Bryant says repeated
efforts to reach Minarik have proven futile. “I’ve been calling Steve on and
off for a couple weeks straight,” he says. “I get his secretary and his
secretary just kind of pushes it off. She’s just kind of like, ‘Oh, you have
called. I gave him the message and he’ll get in touch with you.’ Every time
it’s been like that.”
On June 18, Bryant said the secretary
finally informed him that his request had been forwarded to Brooks’ campaign
committee, but that they hadn’t yet made a decision.
“Frankly, the Brockport radio
station kind of falls down on the list of places to start with debates,”
Minarik says, referring to television network affiliates that have also
expressed interest. “And actually, if the attitude of the people who’ve been calling
from Brockport were better, we’d probably have a debate set up with them, too.
The attitude’s a little much over there.”
Minarik didn’t elaborate, but Bryant
says he’s been “trying to put some heat under the Republicans” by telling them
that Johnson has agreed to the debate, and that the event will take place
whether Brooks appears or not.
Minarik says that while he respects
WBSU, “some news outlets have better relationships than others.” Channel 8’s
debate “was the easiest one to get straightened out, because all the questions
were answered,” he says. “I think Channel 8’s at the forefront of that, and
that’s why there’s a debate agreed to.”
Bryant has his own questions, such
as why Brooks wouldn’t be particularly interested in participating in the
student station’s debate. “She used to be in news and she used to be on TV and
radio,” he says, “so I would have thought she would have supported our causes
and worked with us.”
Brooks worked for WHAM for three
years, and as a reporter and anchorwoman at Channel 10 for 14 years, before she
was fired in 1994. At the time, she told the Times Union that the station’s management was dissatisfied with her
on-air performance, an assessment she called “really strange,” because
management “always indicated I was doing a good job, and public feedback seemed
to support that.”
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2003.
