Club 20 Debates Feature Incumbents Going On Offense

The Club 20 debates in Grand Junction usually kick off the serious debate season every election year. This year was no exception as the candidates running for Governor and for U.S. Senate took the opportunity to go on the attack after a somewhat calm summer.

Most people expected the Republican challengers to come out firing since that is usually what is required of challengers to take out an incumbent. But how John Hickenlooper and Mark Udall would react was still in question.

Both incumbents answered that question quickly by showing uncharacteristic aggression toward each opponent.

The attitude displayed in each debate showed that the incumbents realize what is at stake and that they are facing serious threats to re-election.

The strong stances taken during each debate also show that the remaining weeks of the campaign should be entertaining.

Neither debate changed the campaign significantly. No candidate had an incredibly embarrassing moment nor landed a zinger that will become a new campaign bumper sticker.

Gov. John Hickenlooper and Bob Beauprez debate at the Club 20 debates in Grand Junction on Sept. 6, 2014. (credit: CBS)

Many of the lines and subject matter could be predicted based on the 30 second ads that have already flooded the airwaves.

But since the ads never feature the candidates directly answering each other, this was the first time to see that kind of interaction.

Gov. John Hickenlooper and Bob Beauprez debate at the Club 20 debates in Grand Junction on Sept. 6, 2014. (credit: CBS)

For John Hickenlooper, this is the first time he’ll need to really get his own hands dirty in a campaign. His performance showed that he understands the challenge. Seeing that Beauprez and Hickenlooper have 11 more debates scheduled, we should get plenty of opportunity to see how they react to each other.

RELATED: Udall, Gardner Trade Jabs In First Debate

However, when it comes to Mark Udall and Cory Gardner, we may have limited access to see debates with these two candidates.

It was reported on Friday that the Udall campaign has declined the invitations to attend debates both with Fox 31 and with CBS4. The CBS4 News debate is also broadcast on Colorado Public Television Channel 12 during primetime, so it’s as if the Udall campaign has declined three televised debates, at this point.

I say “at this point” because I am an optimist. I am optimistic that when the reality of declining three full one hour prime time opportunities, the Udall campaign will find time in the Senator’s busy schedule to make the debates happen. Mark Udall has not ducked debating any previous opponents and why he would want to duck Gardner doesn’t make any sense.

Even though limiting access to debates is a strategy employed by other incumbents in tough fights, I am not confident that Mark Udall wants to become the first candidate to decline a CBS4 debate in 20 years. That seems like an unnecessarily risky move.

Cory Gardner is a talented and aggressive debater, but can televised debates with him really do that much harm to Mark Udall as to need to give up three hours of free prime time air time?

I hope my optimism is deserved. We still have several weeks before the scheduled debates, so I hope I have the opportunity to report that voters in Colorado will get to actually see and hear Mark Udall and Cory Gardner multiple times on television this season.

This debate producer remains optimistic.

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About The Blogger

- Dominic Dezzutti, producer of the Colorado Decides debate series, a co-production of CBS4 and Colorado Public Television, looks at the local and national political scene in his CBSDenver.com blog. Read new entries here usually every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Dezzutti writes about federal, state and local matters and how our elected leaders are handling the issues important to Colorado. Dezzutti is also the host and producer of the Emmy award winning Colorado Inside Out on Colorado Public Television.