According to today's article in the Daily News, Andrew Cuomo has agreed to host two debates against Republican opponent Rob Astorino to fight for position as NY governor. One of the debates will be broadcast through the radio only, while the other debate will be televised in Buffalo and possibly statewide involving minor party candidates like the Green and Libertarian parties. However, this left Astorino unsatisfied, who challenges Cuomo to have a one-on-one televised debate with him excluding the involvement of minor parties. In addition, Astorino's spokesperson claims that Cuomo had arranged these two debates without notifying Astorino's campaign team, and questions whether Cuomo was purposely avoiding being asked on film about his handling of an anticorruption commission that was being investigated by US Attorney Preet Bharara. Cuomo's spokesperson merely defends their actions by saying that Astorino's team had allowed them to set up the debate, and accuses them for twisting their words. It has also been seen that Cuomo has avoided televised mano-a-mano debates with others, such as Democratic primary opponent Zephyr Teachout. Also, in his run for office four years ago, Cuomo got involved in only one debate, but which involved many other major and minor party candidates. Based on Cuomo's spokesperson response to Astorino's spokesperson's complaints, I feel that Cuomo is purposely avoiding a one-on-one televised debate. Even if Astorino's team did or did not let Cuomo's team to arrange a set date to debate together, the Cuomo team still set up a date in where they could avoid a televised one-to-one debate. Astorino's team might have lied about what they said, but still it doesn't change the fact that Cuomo's team did a trend-like move. I'm actually wondering why Cuomo avoids this kind of debate. Is he scared of being filmed on TV by himself with another opponent, or is it just hard to schedule a one-on-one televised debate for NY candidates in general?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/cuomo-agrees-debate-astorino-article-1.1955067
No comments:
Post a Comment