(The Center Square) – Despite organizers saying as much, a communications spokesperson with Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s campaign for governor said media reports that he pulled out of a planned debate with Republican candidate Dave Reichert are “100% inaccurate.”
“The claims that Bob pulled out of this debate are inaccurate and untruthful,” Erik Houser emailed The Center Square Friday.
Seattle City Club planned to host the debate next month.
A Thursday afternoon post on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Seattle City Club Executive Director Alicia Crank, said, in part: “Despite months of continuous communication and coordination with the candidates for governor, the Washington State Debate Coalition will cancel its Oct. 11 debate in Ellensburg after Democrat Bob Ferguson withdrew from the event.”
Crank’s post said Seattle City Club had repeated conversations with Ferguson’s campaign about the planned event.
“On Aug. 21, an additional note was sent about the event,” Crank said in her X post. “Regrettably, the Ferguson campaign rebuffed these requests and has formally withdrawn from the WSDC debate.”
Several media outlets picked up the story, reporting that Ferguson had pulled out of the debate.
“We are asking for retractions from the outlets that have reported it,” Houser said in his email to The Center Square.
Reached by phone Friday morning, Crank said it was actually the Reichert campaign that initially said it could not make the Oct. 11 date work.
“They said they had too many commitments, he can’t do it, sorry,” said Crank, explaining that when she notified the Ferguson campaign, it said to “let us know if something changes.”
Crank went on to say, “They said if Reichert’s campaign changed their mind and it was in writing, to let them know.”
“On Monday Reichert’s campaign said they were able to reschedule some things and they were back in,” she continued. “I reached out to Ferguson’s campaign and told them that Reichert was back in and we did have it in writing, and their response was radio silence.”
“So, I nudged again, and they sent an email that said they couldn’t make it work,” Crank said. “It’s frustrating because there was a lot of good faith put into this, and we communicated very early to make this happen.”
Crank said the Ferguson campaign had not reached out to her as of late Friday morning.
Ferguson and Reichert advanced to the November general election following the Aug. 6 top-two primary.
Ferguson received 45% of the total votes. Reichert received 27% of the vote, while Semi Bird finished with 11%.
Houser said the Ferguson campaign is committed to two debates with Reichert on Sept. 10 in Seattle and Sept. 18 in Spokane.
Dave Reichert responded to a request for comment with the following email: “I committed to this debate and I’m disappointed for the voters of Washington that Bob Ferguson is refusing to debate our very different visions for our state. I urge him to change course and join me on stage on October 11.”
