BREAKING: Three gubernatorial debates announced

From a Culver press release:

In a letter to the Nussle-Vander Plaats campaign, Culver campaign representative Jim Larew set dates and cities for three gubernatorial debates:

October 2, 2006
Cedar Rapids
Hosted by the Cedar Rapids Gazette and KCRG-TV
Live feed made available to ABC affiliates statewide

October 16, 2006
Davenport
Hosted by the Quad City Times and KWQC-TV
Live feed made available to NBC affiliates statewide

October 21, 2006
Des Moines
Hosted by the Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television
Live feed made available to IPTV transmitters statewide

The Culver-Judge campaign also reiterated its proposal for two televised debates between the candidates for Lieutenant Governor. The campaign has suggested that these debates take place in Sioux City and Ottumwa, but no specific dates, cities, or sponsors have been set.

Some thoughts from my end:

Televised Lt. Gov. debates will never happen. Would anyone in their right mind sit through an hour of Judge and Vander Plaats? The continued call for these debates combined with the fact that Culver named Sioux City and Ottumwa as their likely locations, is just a political move by the Culver camp to avoid angering voters in those cities. The Ottumwa Courier has already called Culver out on this.

If you live in Dubuque, Decorah, anywhere in the 4th district, anywhere in the 5th district, or anywhere in SE Iowa, sorry, you're not going to get to see any debates. With the possibility of Lt. Gov debates removed, the regions listed above are going to get neglected. SE Iowa, SW Iowa and north central Iowa get their TV largely from out of state networks, so they might not even get a chance to catch one on TV.

All three debates are early enough for both campaigns to use them to create attack ads. My prediction: Culver's camp will get Nussle on tape talking about protecting pensions, then destroy him for it. Nussle will catch one of Culver's stumbles and make ads asking if he's ready to be governor.

KL