IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Erik Paulsen is dodging debates
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One major race where Tucker has been hoping to sponsor a forum is the closely contested 3rd District race between incumbent Republican Erik Paulsen and DFL challenger Terri Bonoff. She’s lined up five League affiliates and two nonprofits to sponsor a candidate forum, but Paulsen has yet to agree.
“We’re having a tough time with Paulsen…he knows it’s a competitive race and he’s trying to protect himself,” she said.
“Erik Paulsen is dodging debates because he lacks the moral courage to stand up to his party’s standard bearer, Donald Trump, and he’s afraid that he’ll get called out for his anti-choice, anti-LGBT, pro-gun positions,” said Sacha Haworth of the DCCC.
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Getting incumbents to debate can be tough
Capitol Report
[…]One major race where Tucker has been hoping to sponsor a forum is the closely contested 3rd District race between incumbent Republican Erik Paulsen and DFL challenger Terri Bonoff. She’s lined up five League affiliates and two nonprofits to sponsor a candidate forum, but Paulsen has yet to agree.
“We’re having a tough time with Paulsen…he knows it’s a competitive race and he’s trying to protect himself,” she said. Although a write-in candidate has emerged in former television news reporter Tim Sherno, his status may not trigger Paulsen’s interest or satisfy federal election regulations, Tucker said.
The race has resulted in at least one candidate forum, held in August by three local chambers of commerce, said Bonoff. Paulsen would only agree to that debate if it was held in August — rather than the campaign season of September and October, she said. The debate event cost $60 a person, Bonoff said, but it still drew more than 300 people.
She believes Paulsen will not debate because while he has portrayed himself as a moderate while voting with conservatives on many issues. He fails to acknowledge climate change and does not support gun control, pro-choice policies, gay marriage or transit, Bonoff said. “People don’t know his record, and that’s what debates would offer,” she said. “He does lack leadership on the major issues facing this country.”
Paulsen’s office did not offer a response, although a staffer who answered the phone said scheduling was always an issue. Meanwhile, Bonoff appeared at a candidate forum Sept. 14 at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
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