Burnt Orange Report

Chicken Todd, Chicken Jack

By Byron LaMasters

Yeah, they're chicken. Chicken Jack almost sounds like a good sandwich. Not so much with Todd. But, I digress. Why are Jack Stick and Todd Baxter chicken? They won't debate their opponents Mark Strama and Kelly White.

Each election year, Austin's PBS affiliate, KLRU hosts (along with KUT radio, Texas Monthly and the Austin American Statesman) a candidate forum for local legislative races. This year KLRU invited the Democratic and Republican nominees to the candidate forum (KRLU's invitation to all candidates is here - PDF file), but Stick and Baxter insisted on very bizarre rules. Instead of simply declining to debate, Baxter and Stick essentially admitted that it would be unfair for their opponents to be able to respond to their characterizations of their freshman term accomplishments - or lack thereof. Furthermore, Stick and Baxter requested a single moderator over a full panel of journalists (ya know, too many of the commie journalists asking questions would really trip them up). Put simply, Jack Stick and Todd Baxter don't want to debate, because they can't defend their record.

Here's the request that Baxter and Stick (and HD45 GOP nominee Alan Askew, running against State Rep. Patrick Rose D-Dripping Springs) made to KLRU:

You can read the entire letter sent by the three GOP nominees here (PDF file).

White and Strama responded with this letter (PDF file) to Baxter and Stick noting that their request for the candidates to not hear each others remarks was highly unusual. They continued to invite both Baxter and Stick to four public debates, but the Republicans would have none of it. Neither Baxter nor Stick replied to the Democrats' letter.

Finally, KLRU had to make a decision on what to do. The Austin Chronicle reports:

Clearly, not even presidential candidates make these kinds of demands, but KLRU president and general manager Bill Stotesbery preferred to play down the pains in the station's neck. He explained that the candidates' schedules were such that it made more sense to shift to a format of individually taped interviews. "At this point we're trying to find a format that will allow everybody to be seen," he said. But even that appears iffy. As of Monday, the station was still waiting to hear back from some of the candidates. Stotesbery said he didn't know which ones had not yet scheduled interviews, but we have an idea.

Alan Askew already hasn't shown up. The Chronicle continues:

One is Askew, of Wimberley, the GOP nominee in District 45. The Democrat he's trying to unseat, Rep. Patrick Rose of Dripping Springs, walked into the KLRU studio on Sept. 22 for what he thought would be a debate with his Republican rival. But Askew was a no-show, so Rose sat down for a one-on-one with Spencer, and that interview will air Friday on Spencer's Austin Now program. Producers, who this week were still uncertain about Askew, had hoped to run the Rose/Askew interviews back to back during the Friday night program. But who knows? After Rose's segment, maybe all they'll have to show for the other guy is dead air.

So will Stick and Baxter show up? I can't really blame them. If I were Jack Stick or Todd Baxter, I wouldn't want to defend my record either. I mean, if I had voted to divide Austin into three congressional districts, or to deregulate tuition rates and raise UT's tuition thirty percent or to cut the health insurance for thousands of disadvantaged children on the CHIP program, a public candidate forum is about the last place that I'd like to be.

Posted by Byron LaMasters at October 5, 2004 06:30 AM | TrackBack