Editorial: Candidates need to participate in debates

Pennsylvania will get at least one debate.

It seems odd to suggest that not having debates during a midterm is at all possible, and yet the top two races in the Keystone State have kept that question unanswered for weeks.

It’s absurd to consider skipping them. Pennsylvania has one of the most consequential U.S. Senate races up for grabs in 2022 — the seat about to be vacated by Republican Pat Toomey. It has been in GOP hands since 1969, except for those two years after Arlen Specter changed parties.

A senator choosing not to run for election, as Toomey has, gives a kind of open opportunity for both sides to equally contend for a position. It’s the political equivalent of a puck drop in a hockey game.

The scramble for possession after that puck hits the ice is the equivalent of the debates. Each question is a chance for the candidates to vie for control, so the idea that one side or the other might simply decline to participate is strange at best — unless there are extenuating circumstances.

In this case, those circumstances were the stroke suffered by Lt. Gov. John Fetterman days before the primary in which he won the Democratic nomination. Recovery did not keep Fetterman from making videos and running a very effective social media sniper attack on his GOP opponent, Mehmet Oz, but it also has not prepared him for a traditional debate.

After Oz’s camp offered for a debate with what Fetterman called insulting terms, like allowing him to use earphones for his team to feed him answers and have frequent bathroom breaks, Fetterman said he would decline.

But on Wednesday, the sides came to an agreement for one October debate. That’s great. It’s too important a step in the process to skip.

Now, it’s time for the gubernatorial candidates to come to a similar understanding. Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano has, on the one hand, challenged his Democratic rival, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, to two October debates. At the same time, he continues to push back on moderators from mainstream outlets, claiming they are biased.

This mirrors a similar strategy Republicans used in the primary, where much of the crowded field of Republicans eschewed traditional debates.

The future of Pennsylvania’s highest office is too important to get bogged down in haggling over the terms like someone is buying a used car.

It is long past time that the debate question be settled and not just for this year. This shouldn’t be a negotiation between campaigns any more than the date of the election or the print size on the ballots. The debates for statewide races should be established before the primaries: dates, times, terms.

The first debate question for candidates should be the simplest they answer: Will you participate or not?