Scaredy-cat? Katie Hobbs Refuses To Debate Trump-Backed Kari Lake

As a result of her Democratic opponent for Arizona governor refusing to accept the debate format, it appears that Trump supporter Kari Lake will have the entire stage to herself during the debate. 

According to statements made by her campaign manager on Sunday, incumbent Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has to “respectfully decline” an invitation to participate in the debate that is slated for October 12. 

The decision was made after the state agency that organizes debates, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, denied her request to change the method of the debate to split 30-minute interviews in the “town hall” style rather than a direct face-off and gave the candidates a week to reach an agreement on the terms of the debate. 

In a statement released last week, Lake, a former journalist who has the support of former President Donald Trump, attacked Hobbs, saying that her “strategy is to hide from Me, the Press, and the Voters throughout the entirety of this campaign and run out the clock on the people of Arizona.” Lake has also stated that she would allow Hobbs to choose the time, place, moderator, and questions for any debates between the two candidates. 

A debate with Lake, according to the Hobbs campaign director Nicole DeMont, would “only lead to constant interruptions, pointless distractions, and childish name-calling.” DeMont said that Hobbs remains interested in a “town hall-style event.” Lake is a critic of the 2020 election. The Hobbs team calls Lake a “conspiracy theorist.”

.@katiehobbs makes it official: she’s refusing to debate @KariLake.@AZCCEC gave her 7 days to work with Lake and Clean Elections staff on ground rules for a debate. Hobbs still declined. Voters will not get to see Lake and Hobbs face each other on a debate stage. pic.twitter.com/AJPUChCk1C

— Jeremy Duda (@jeremyduda) September 11, 2022

A head-to-head discussion between Marco Lopez and Hobbs was scheduled to take place during the Democratic primary, but Hobbs declined to participate. Polling indicates that the general election between Lake and Hobbs will be a close contest, with the Democrat holding a slight but narrow lead over Hobbs in the race to succeed Republican Governor Doug Ducey. The term in office of the latter is coming to an end. Lake is currently ahead in the polls. 

Kari Lake announced the previous week on Thursday that she favored doing away with the state’s income tax, but she did not provide any specifics regarding how she would accomplish this goal. 

During an appearance on The Mike Broomhead Show on KTAR News, Lake stated that she would like to see an ultimate elimination of the income tax if that is possible. Despite saying this, she did not guarantee anything, because she did not want to make a promise that she could not keep. 

In addition, the previous host of a television newscast stated that she wished for it to be reduced to a number that was as close to zero as was practically possible so that they could compete with some of these other states.