Vt. Dem challenger says Leahy balks at debates
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Daniel Freilich (left) shakes hands with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy in Rutland on Friday. Freilich asked Leahy to debate him. Vyto Starinskas/ Rutland Herald |
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By JOHN CURRAN
The Associated Press - Published: July 24, 2010
MONTPELIER — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy’s primary opponent is accusing him of ducking debates. The six-term incumbent says it isn’t so.
Daniel Freilich, a U.S. Navy Reserve physician running against Leahy in the Aug. 24 Democratic primary election, says Leahy has rejected invitations to candidate forums and debates and is “scared” of him.
Freilich says candidate debates are a basic element of the democratic process, and that Leahy’s refusal to participate in forums held by WCAX-TV and a Burlington public access TV station show shortchanges voters.
“If elections include debates and public discourse about public issues and one is not going to partake in those, you could make the argument of dispensing with the elections altogether and just having an appointment letter sent to the incumbent every six years,” said Freilich, who has filed to run in the Nov. 2 general election in case he loses in the primary.
Freilich, who’s making his first bid for public office, faces an uphill battle against the veteran Democrat, who has represented Vermont on Capitol Hill since 1975 and has $3.2 million in campaign cash — compared to Freilich’s $1,700, as of June 30.
The two have agreed to appear Aug. 4 on Vermont Public Radio’s “Vermont Edition,” a live call-in program that will include taking questions from callers and will be heard statewide twice that day.
Freilich and about a dozen of his supporters wearing campaign T-shirts and carrying signs appeared at the Democratic headquarters on Center Street in Rutland Friday where they mingled with Leahy supporters until the senator arrived for an event at 5:30 p.m.
Freilich and his supporters were quiet while Leahy briefly addressed a crowd inside the headquarters. But as the senator turned to leave, Freilich asked Leahy why he wouldn’t debate.
The senator answered that he would and was scheduled to debate him on VPR on Aug. 4.
“This is all a stunt for attention,” Leahy’s campaign manager Carolyn Dwyer said.
But Freilich said after his brief conversation with Leahy that it was the senator who was pulling a stunt.
“He wants to do a radio debate that’s all choreographed and controlled,” he said. “This reeks of hubris and is disrespectful to the people of Vermont.”
Leahy also plans to debate all of his challengers prior to the Nov. 2 election, campaign manager Carolyn Dwyer said Friday.
Leahy wasn’t contacted until two days before the WCAX-TV program and already had a commitment, she said. The other forum was during the work week, when he is Washington, said Dwyer.
She called Freilich’s criticism a bid for attention.
“We do not place a high priority on debating someone in the Democratic primary who is also running as an independent in the general election. Senator Leahy’s top priority is doing his job for Vermont. He does look forward to debating all (seven) candidates in the general election,” Dwyer said in an e-mail Friday.
The candidates who have filed to run in the general election are: Freilich, Republican Len Britton and independents Peter Diamondstone, Johenry Nunes, Cris Ericson, Stephen J. Cain and Rick Russell.
Herald reporter Brent Curtis contributed to this report.
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