The 4th and final debate between Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren will not take place, as Brown rejected the rescheduled date late Tuesday evening.
By Robert Rizzuto & Shira Schoenberg
Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren will not participate in a 4th televised debate as Brown pulled out late Tuesday evening.
The fourth and final debate between Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, postponed by both candidates because of Hurricane Sandy, will not take place, as Brown rejected the rescheduled date late Tuesday evening.
Around the time when the candidates would have been taking the stage at WGBH's TV studios in Brighton had the storm not come, debate organizers and then the Brown campaign confirmed that the event has been cancelled as Brown rejected Thursday as the proposed date, citing his busy campaign schedule.
"It is unfortunate that nature intervened in a way we all agreed made it inappropriate to carry on with the scheduled debate. With only days remaining in the campaign, and with a long-planned bus tour kicking off Thursday through Election Day that will take Scott Brown to every corner of the Commonwealth, our calendar simply cannot accommodate a rescheduling of this fourth debate and the planning and preparation that would go into it," said Colin Reed, a Brown campaign spokesman in a statement emailed to reporters just after 7 p.m. "Senator Brown is pleased to have participated in three major televised debates, and regrets that Professor Warren refused two additional earlier debate opportunities that he accepted."
The jab at Warren, peppered with Brown's rejection of the final debate, refers to two radio debates which Warren declined as the two began to duel over debate engagements after the Harvard Law School professor was officially nominated as the Democratic candidate at the state party's convention in Springfield.
Brown also rejected a debate sponsored by the University of Massachusetts-Boston and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate after issuing demands including one that Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, refrain from endorsing a candidate in the election.
Following Brown's rejection of the final debate, Warren's campaign struck back, saying that the junior senator was "ducking questions about his record."
"It is unfortunate voters will not have the chance to hear from both candidates on the important issues facing Massachusetts. Elizabeth was working with the debate organizers to move forward on Thursday," said Mindy Myers, Warren's campaign manager in a statement. "Elizabeth agreed to additional debates that Brown refused in Worcester and the South Coast as well as a forum hosted by the NAACP. Scott Brown doesn't want to have to talk about his record - plain and simple."
After the duo suspended their campaigning on Monday as the storm approached, Brown and Warren both toured the hard-hit South Shore of the commonwealth on Tuesday. In the afternoon, Warren announced that the rescheduled date debate organizers proposed, Thursday, worked for her.
When asked about the debate by reporters outside Quincy Mayor Tom Koch's office later in the afternoon, Brown referred questions to his campaign, which did not respond to a request for comment on the proposed shift to Thursday until Reed issued his statement.
“If you want to talk about campaign stuff, call the campaign,” Brown said. “I’ve already put out statement that we’re dealing with, obviously, the storm and the aftermath.”
The organizers of the ill-fated debate released a statement Tuesday evening reflecting on their disappointment in the fact that despite months of planning, the event would not take place.
“This is very disappointing for all the citizens who will not have an opportunity to hear directly from the candidates a week before this important election,” said WGBH executive producer Linda Polach, who has been coordinating the effort for the consortium.
Brown and Warren have sparred in three debates, with what has ended up being the final showdown taking place at Springfield's Symphony Hall on Oct. 10.
Brown is planning a bus tour, which is scheduled to kick off on Thursday with an evening rally in Wakefield with Republican 6th Congressional District candidate Richard Tisei.
The storm effectively paused the campaign at the beginning of the week, but a new poll released on Tuesday showed Warren widening her lead over Brown.
A Suffolk University/7News poll found Warren leading Brown, 53 percent to 46 percent, with just over 1 percent undecided. However, a Boston Globe/University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released on Monday concluded that Brown holds a slight lead over Warren, 45 percent to 43 percent, a difference withing the poll's 4 percent margin of error.
Brown spent Tuesday morning visiting the South Coast, with visits to Rehoboth, Westport and South Dartmouth. He stopped briefly to meet with the mayor of Quincy – which received relatively little damage – before heading to the coastal towns of Newbury and Gloucester. Warren toured Westport and Scituate.
Midway through his tour, Brown said the biggest storm-related concern was getting power turned back on for all Massachusetts residents. Brown also pointed to the needs of residents in areas like Westport, where he said some houses were devastated, roads were impassable and wires were down.
“It’s just getting people back on their feet,” Brown said.