"Jerry Kilgore wants to be a tough guy. The foppish Republican gubernatorial candidate wants voters to know he can’t stand immigrants, loves guns and isn’t afraid to execute convicts. So why won’t Kilgore step on stage with his challenger, Independent candidate Russ Potts?

Keeping with the Republican strategy of careful image control, Kilgore has debated Democratic challenger Tim Kaine only once, with another debate scheduled in Fairfax County on September 13. Kilgore has refused to debate Potts; a debate between Kaine and Potts is scheduled for September 30.

“The debate should be between candidates who have a legitimate shot of winning the election,” says Kilgore spokesman Tucker Martin.

Potts, who collected more than 24,000 signatures to get his name on the ballot, has a different take.

“Jerry-boy is a lousy public speaker. He has no confidence. He has no knowledge of the issues,” says Potts. “He hates confrontation.”

The Center for Politics at UVA is now getting caught up in the debate over debates, too.

Larry Sabato, the ubiquitous political commentator who directs the Center, says he tried for months to get the three candidates on the same stage for a debate to be televised statewide. The Center proposed that Potts would be included if his poll numbers hit 15 percent—which is the standard the two major parties have set for inclusion in the presidential debates. Kaine and Potts agreed, but Kilgore balked and stalled before finally agreeing to the terms a couple weeks ago, Sabato says.

On August 18, the Newport News Daily Press ran an editorial criticizing Sabato for the 15 percent standard. On August 19, The Washington Post ran a similar editorial, accusing Sabato of burdening Potts with an “arbitrary” 15 percent benchmark.

The usually amicable Sabato immediately went on the offensive. In letters to the editors of both papers, Sabato made it clear that the 15 percent standard was not arbitrary. “When we consulted with legal experts before making our debate proposal this year,” Sabato wrote, “the one thing they insisted upon was that we should be consistent and not arbitrary, and therefore should maintain the same standard used for years and years…” Sabato’s letter compared Potts, a Republican Senator since 1992, to Libertarian candidate William Redpath, who was on the gubernatorial ballot in 2001 but was also excluded from the debates by the 15 percent standard.

The Washington Post responded with a correction on August 22. On Saturday, August 27, the Daily Press ran an op-ed column from the Center correcting the error.

Not everyone is letting Sabato off the hook, though. The snarky bloggers known as Not Larry Sabato say comparing Potts, an experienced senator, to Redpath, a “man off the street,” is a false analogy.

“To compare it to the presidential race and their 15 percent threshold is also laughable,” NLS says via e-mail. “Presidential candidates are much more closely followed at an earlier date, making 15 percent easier to achieve for a credible candidate.”

Saying Sabato should have used his influence to get all three candidates on the same stage, NLS continues: “Voters deserve to see them all, and shouldn’t let an agenda of Professor Sabato wanting to be friends with the incoming governor stop them from that.”

Maybe next year. After the election, Sabato says he plans to arrange a meeting of press and broadcasters to set up firm dates for debates—no benchmarks, no haggling with campaign managers. “If a candidate doesn’t show up, too bad. The debate will be held with an empty chair,” says Sabato. “There will be a price to pay.”

Potts vows that he’ll hit the 15 percent mark. Meanwhile, he says Kilgore is already paying a price for dodging a debate.

“There’s no way he wins in the court of public opinion,” says Potts. “Whenever I’m out, people wonder, ‘Why won’t Jerry Kilgore debate you?’”" (John Borgmeyer, C-Ville, August 30, 2005)