Idaho voters deserve more from Republican primary candidates who back down from debates

This is getting ridiculous.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little is the latest Republican candidate for office to back out of a debate with his opponents.

The announcement came just hours after Idaho Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, backed out of a statewide debate with House Speaker Scott Bedke in their race for Idaho lieutenant governor, claiming media bias.

Earlier in the week, U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, pulled out of a debate with challenger Bryan Smith.

This breaking of norms and precedent shows a lack of regard for the voters.

“Idaho Public Television reaches nearly every household in the state, and we know from past comments that many Republican primary voters rely on debates to inform their decisions at the ballot box,” Melissa Davlin of Idaho Public Television, debate moderator, said in a news release.

This makes Little the first sitting governor seeking reelection to refuse to participate in the Idaho Debates in more than three decades.

Little, who is being challenged by Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin and Ed Humphreys, also said he would not participate in KTVB-TV’s planned upcoming debate.

His campaign said in a statement that Little’s record is “non-debatable” and that “Idahoans know what Gov. Little stands for.”

That is absolute hubris.

No one’s record is non-debatable, and debates provide a prime opportunity to question candidates on specifics and details.

Further, debates are just as much about the future as they are about the past, and candidates should stand to answer questions about what they plan to do, not just what they’ve already done.

In a debate, voters get to see how candidates respond to each other and how they answer questions on the spot.

Too often in our political world, candidates are the products of canned speeches, self-aggrandizing press releases and simple-minded campaign ads filled with platitudes and empty slogans about liberty and freedom.

Are voters supposed to rely on those? No. Voters deserve to see their candidates thinking on their feet and speaking for themselves.

In addition to shortchanging voters, backing down from a debate with your opponents is just cowardly.

Candidates seem to have no problem sending out nasty statements, buying ugly attack ads and going on social media to criticize their opponents — as long as it’s from a safe distance. But they won’t bother to be in the same room, face to face, to answer tough questions and try to defend their positions, knowing their opponent is ready to argue an opposing viewpoint.

Voters deserve better. Voters deserve these debates.

This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 6:03 PM.