Will Warren, Brown Debate in Central Mass?

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Walter Bird Jr., GoLocalWorcester Reporter

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and his Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, have left Central Mass out of the mix while scheduling debates. While Boston and Western Mass will be hosting debates, the region with the second largest city in the state and nearly 100,000 registered voters has been absent from talk between the two camps.

Debate Offers

GoLocalWorcester and two other organizations are doing their best to make sure Central Mass isn’t ignored by campaign officials scheduling debates. GoLocalWorcester CEO Joshua Fenton recently notified both camps his organization would sponsor a debate. The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Colleges of Worcester Consortium (CWC) have also partnered to host a debate and recently notified both campaigns “unofficially” that they would welcome them to a debate here, according to CWC CEO Mark Bilotta.

“We are trying to make sure Worcester is not skipped over,” Bilotta said. “We’ve been building a coalition of bipartisan support to bring (the two candidates) to Worcester.”

Bilotta said the group would partner with a media outlet and has targeted Hanover Theater as the host venue for a debate. The hope is to attract a TV media outlet to broadcast the debate live. The group has reached out to Mayor Joseph Petty, as well as the chairs of the city’s Democratic and Republican committees, to sign on to an invitation to the two campaigns. Petty could not immediately be reached for comment, but Chris Pinto, a member of the Republican committee in Worcester, sees a greater need for debates among candidates for state offices than for a seat in Washington, D.C.

“We think it’s more important that the Chamber and Consortium would host debates for local races,” said Pinto. “After the nation election is over, we’ll still have a number of issues to deal with in Massachusetts. The local debates affect us far more than the senatorial debates.”

Campaigns Squabble

So far, Brown and Warren have agreed on just two debates together, although each has committed to four. They have agreed to spar at a WBZ-sponsored debate and one hosted by the Western Mass Consortium in Springfield. Brown has committee to two others, both on radio – one with 96.9FM and one with WBZ radio. Warren, meanwhile, has accepted offers from the Boston Consortium and one jointly sponsored by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute and UMass-Boston.

Julie Edwards, a member of the Warren Campaign, did not indicate to GoLocalWorcester whether Warren would agree to a Central Mass debate, but took the opportunity to zing the Republican incumbent.

“We have currently accepted four televised debates,” Edwards said. “Unfortunately, Scott Brown has only accepted two. The next step is for Scott Brown to commit to these four televised debates.”

Felix Browne, a campaign worker for Brown, said of a Central Mass debate: "Everything remains under consideration."

Parties Weigh In

Kevin Franck, communications director for the Massachusetts Democratic Party referred all questions about debates to the Warren and Brown campaigns. Tim Buckley, communications director for the Massachusetts Republican Committee, also did not want to comment for the campaigns, but acknowledged Central Mass as a “critical area” for the state Republican committee.

“At our field office in Worcester, activists have been extremely busy,” said Buckley. “The Worcester office is one of most productive offices in the state.”

While not coming out and lobbying officially for a debate in this area, Buckley said, “A lot of people refer to Central Mass as the Republican Heartland.”

That could explain any trepidation on Warren’s part to venture out here for a debate, although much of the Republicans’ success in elections has been on the state level and largely in suburbs, where Republicans have scored victories in recent years.

Key to Election

The last time Worcester hosted a statewide debate was in 2002, between gubernatorial candidates Mitt Romney and Shannon O’Brien.

Bilotta is hopeful both campaigns will sign on to a debate in Worcester, but acknowledged, “I don’t think we anticipated how quickly the campaigns would make their debate decisions.”

Still, Bilotta was confident the candidates will see Central Mass as a key part of any victory, given its large population. Worcester alone has a population in excess of 180,000.

“You look at the population,” said Bilotta. “Numerically, it would play role in this election. We though it was important to include this area and spread out the geographic distribution of the debates.”

As to whether a debate in Central Mass becomes reality, Bilotta said, “We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”

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