Gianforte campaign declines to participate in two other debates
By Blair Miller DAILY MONTANAN
After publicly sparring for weeks about whether they would participate in a debate, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ryan Busse’s campaigns have agreed to participate in a televised debate in mid-October.
The debate will be hosted by NonStop Local on Oct. 16; longtime Montana political reporter Mike Dennison and news reporter Bradley Warren will host it, said NonStop Local News Director Paul Bergen in a phone call Tuesday morning.
The exact time, location, and parameters for the debate were still in the works, Bergen said, but both candidates had committed to participating. Two other debates the Busse campaign had agreed to and had been trying to get Gianforte to commit to, one hosted by Montana Television Network on Oct. 1 and another hosted by Montana PBS, Lee Newspapers, and Montana and Yellowstone Public Radio for Oct. 7, have been canceled because Gianforte’s campaign declined to participate, the news outlets said.
On Monday afternoon, Busse’s campaign sent out a news release saying Gianforte had canceled the other two debates. Earlier this month, Busse released years of tax returns to the Associated Press, which the Gianforte had called on him to do before his campaign committed to any debates, saying Busse otherwise was not a “serious” candidate.
The Gianforte campaign did not at the time to commit to any specific debates, but Busse’s campaign manager said that day he believed that releasing the returns meant Gianforte would participate in both the Oct. 1 and 7 debates.
On Monday, Busse campaign manager Aaron Murphy said the news organizations hosting the Oct. 1 and 7 debates had said they were “off.”
“Governor Gianforte is the most inaccessible, least transparent governor in the history of this state, and it’s no wonder why he doesn’t want to defend his disaster of a record in a public forum,” Busse said in a statement.
Gianforte’s campaign manager, Jake Eaton, shortly afterward accused the Busse campaign of lying, saying the two campaigns had committed to the Oct. 16 NonStop Local debate.
“After dragging his feet for weeks and saying he was too ‘busy’ to release his taxes, Busse finally did, and we immediately began debate talks,” Eaton said in an emailed statement. “Ryan Busse should stop lying to Montanans and instead focus on how he’s going to defend his work for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the debate stage.”
Murphy said Tuesday that when he sent the Busse campaign’s news release out, the NonStop Local debate was still under negotiation and the campaign was not lying.
Murphy said deadlines last week for both campaigns to commit to the two other debates had come and gone without Gianforte’s campaign committing to either. Emails viewed by the Daily Montanan on Tuesday confirm Gianforte’s campaign, in an email sent last Friday, declined to participate in the debate hosted by Montana PBS, Lee Newspapers, Montana Public Radio and Yellowstone Public Radio.
While Bergen had said Tuesday morning the parameters of the debate were still being set, Murphy said Tuesday afternoon the debate would be prerecorded in Missoula on Oct. 16 and air later that evening. Murphy said there would be no studio audience.
Kaiser Leib, the Libertarian candidate for governor, said he had not been invited to participate in the NonStop Local debate.
Keagan Harsha, the statewide news director for MTN News, said in a statement that Gianforte had declined an invitation to participate in the network’s debate.
“It is disappointing for residents of our state. MTN has held candidate debates every election cycle for at least the last 30 years, and up until this year all major party candidates have participated,” Harsha said in an emailed statement. “We believe debates serve an important purpose as opportunities for voters to learn more about the candidates, their policies and intentions.”
Harsha said MTN has canceled the debate since Gianforte decided not to appear, but MTN has requested long-form, one-on-one interviews with both Gianforte and Busse. Busse has already accepted, and Harsha said MTN is “hopeful” Gianforte will as well.
John Twiggs, a public affairs director for the University of Montana and Montana PBS, confirmed the debate the outlet, along with others, planned to host was canceled after Gianforte’s campaign declined to participate last week. He said Busse’s campaign had accepted their invitation, which initially was sent out the day after the June primary.
Twiggs said it was “disappointing” the debate between the top two candidates would not take place as the outlets had planned.
“You can get certain things from daily coverage, and you can get certain things from other forms that the reporting takes, but this is the only piece of it where you’re going to get them in the same room at the same time, right?” Twiggs said. “And, unfortunately, they don’t see any utility in that.”
