
	Chris Mulick has worked for the Herald since 1998 and has served as the statehouse correspondent covering state government and politics since 2000. He works year-round out of the Herald's Olympia bureau on the state Capitol campus. Have a question? Send Chris an e-mail and he'll answer the best questions regularly.

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Monday, Aug. 04, 2008

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UPDATE: Gregoire and Rossi will debate at least three times

Gov. Chris Gregoire’s re-election campaign just issued a news release announcing she has agree to appear in five debates leading up to the Nov. 4 general election.

Dates are to be announced at another time. Two of the debates will be held in Seattle, one is slated for Tacoma, one is set for Spokane and another is scheduled to be held in Yakima.

Here’s the list the Gregoire camp has agreed to by sponsor, which was cut and pasted from her news release. And I’ll update this post if we hear anything from the Dino Rossi campaign.

— McClatchy newspapers – Tri-City Herald, Tacoma Chamber, Olympian, Bellingham Herald, Tacoma News Tribune (To be held in Tacoma.)

— Seattle Post-Intelligencer, League of Women Voters, KOMO TV Seattle, KXLY Spokane, KATU Portland (To be held in Seattle.)

— Yakima Herald-Republic, Seattle Times, all statewide PBS affiliates (To be held in Yakima.)

— Spokesman-Review, KSPS Public TV and 790 KJRB (To be held in Spokane.)

— KUOW radio and other NPR stations statewide (To be broadcast live from the Seattle studio.)

UPDATE: Rossi just dropped by the office and it looks as though there may not be a huge debate over debates this year. He already has agreed to the P-I/KOMO debate in Seattle, the debate in Yakima and the debate in Spokane.

They still are working on and may yet agree to the second Seattle debate and the Tacoma debate. In addition, Rossi has agreed to appear in a Seattle Times/KING TV debate in Seattle that wasn't on Gregoire's list.

So, at a minimum, it appears as though Gregoire and Rossi will debate at least three times.

UPDATE: Gregoire spokesman Aaron Toso said the campaign has set aside Aug. 15th to stage the KUOW radio debate. That's one that Rossi hasn't yet agreed to.

"We think it is important for voters to hear from both candidates before the primary," Toso said.

Why?

"Because the primary is an election," he said.

But the other eight gubernatorial candidates on the ballot whose fate will be determined in the primary — Will Baker, Duff Badgley, John Aiken, Christian Pierre Joubert, Christopher Tudor, Javier Lopez, Mohammad Hassan Said and James White — would not be allowed to participate.

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