The Democratic and Republican nominees for governor have agreed to four debates in the next two months, their campaigns confirmed Friday.
Republican Jim Gibbons and Democrat Dina Titus will meet twice in Las Vegas, once in Reno and once in Elko.
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The first debate is scheduled for Sept. 25 in Reno. Subsequent debates will take place Oct. 9 and Oct. 17 in Las Vegas, and Oct. 20 in Elko.
Gibbons campaign manager Robert Uithoven said the debate schedule was proof that the perception that Gibbons was avoiding his opponent was wrong.
"Jim Gibbons is very eager to engage in debates with Dina Titus," he said. "We're not ducking any opportunity to show what the differences are between the two candidates."
Titus had called for six debates, with the Gibbons camp originally saying it favored three. But "we never ruled out more than three," Uithoven said.
Gibbons also has plans to appear at nondebate forums, Uithoven said.
Gibbons earned a reputation as resistant to debating during the Republican primary when he adopted the classic front-runner's campaign strategy of barely acknowledging his opponents. Bob Beers and Lorraine Hunt often griped about not being able to debate Gibbons earlier and more often. Gibbons did debate, but not until early August, less than two weeks before the primary election.
Gibbons, a congressman from Reno, claimed his duties in Washington didn't give him time for more debates. But he missed a week of votes in Washington to attend his son's high school graduation.
Titus, a Las Vegas state senator, came out swinging, saying the day after she won the primary that she wouldn't let Gibbons hide or make excuses. As she accepted donations at a union convention last week, she joked that she might use them to buy toy ducks to represent Gibbons.
But Uithoven said Titus' assumption about Gibbons was mistaken.
"The notion that Jim wouldn't debate was just wrong," he said. "He's been in a lot of campaigns, and he's debated in all of them."
Titus spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said Friday she was glad Gibbons had upped the debate schedule from his original offer of three, and "we hope he'll continue to change his mind and agree to more."
However, Titus still won't be satisfied with fewer than six debates, Grey said. "Six was actually a conservative number," she said. "We've received easily 12 to 14 invitations, and we have all of those dates on our calendar. We think that the more conversations that can be heard in front of the electorate, the better."
Alluding to the fact that Gibbons, who possesses a formidable war chest of campaign money, is already airing television ads bashing Titus, Grey said, "It's easy to put out commercials that are pre-packaged. It's a lot harder to actually talk to the voters of Nevada."
The first Las Vegas debate will be Oct. 9 at Bally's. It will be hosted by Harrah's Entertainment and sponsored by a coalition of business and minority organizations. It is not yet scheduled to be televised, but it will be open to the public on a ticketed basis, organizer Becky Takeda said. The candidates will take questions from the advocacy groups and have an opportunity to rebut each other.
