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N.C. debate called off
Obama camp declines to agree to participate
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Published: April 22, 2008
RALEIGH
It's official: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will not debate in North Carolina after all.
The N.C. Democratic Party and CBS News had planned to hold a debate in Raleigh on April 27, but the party canceled it yesterday after Obama declined to commit to the debate.
"Clearly you can't have a debate without two people," said Jerry Meek, the chairman of the state party.
The party could not continue planning for a debate without a firm answer from the Obama campaign, Meek said.
Clinton had agreed to the debate, and her campaign released a statement yesterday criticizing Obama for not agreeing to participate.
Campaigning in Raleigh last week, Obama said that, at this point in the campaign, the two candidates can recite each other's lines by heart.
Obama also said that a debate would take away time when he could be meeting directly with North Carolina voters.
Obama and Clinton have debated more than 20 times. Most of those debates occurred early on in the Democratic presidential race, when the field of candidates was much more crowded.
The most recent debate -- and likely the last one between the two candidates -- was in Philadelphia last week, when Obama frequently found himself on the defensive.
Meek said that more than 20,000 people had requested tickets for the proposed Raleigh debate.
"Certainly we wanted to do it, and it was something that was very important to me," Meek said. "But at the same time, I understand that you can't put something together in just a few days."
Both Obama and Clinton have agreed to speak at the party's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Raleigh on May 3 -- three days before the state's May 6 primary.
In other debate news yesterday, the two Democrats running for governor finally agreed on details for their own debate.
Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and State Treasurer Richard Moore will have a debate tonight, from 8 to 9 p.m., hosted by WRAL, the CBS television affiliate in Raleigh.
That debate will be televised live in the Raleigh, Charlotte and Wilmington TV markets.
Jim Hefner, the general manager of WRAL, said that WRAL will offer the debate to any other station in the state that wants to air it as well.
But it was unclear yesterday if any station would do that on such short notice.
Anyone can watch the debate online at www.wral.com.
For weeks, Perdue and Moore have been sniping over whether, and when, to debate. Both candidates recently agreed to have a debate tonight, but they each accepted offers from different television stations.
Moore held a press conference yesterday criticizing Perdue for not agreeing to the WRAL debate. Two hours later, Perdue agreed to it.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.
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