Washington debate coalition corrects comments about Ferguson 'pulling out' of debate

SEATTLE, Wash - One day after news stories and social media posts claiming Attorney General Bob Ferguson "pulled out" of a scheduled gubernatorial debate with Dave Reichert, the debate coalition confirmed what Ferguson's campaign told 4 News Now: he had never agreed to it in the first place.

The Washington State Debate Coalition was hoping to hold a debate between the two candidates for governor in Ellensburg on October 11th.

Thursday on Twitter/X, Alicia Crank from the coalition posted a news release, saying Ferguson "withdrew from the event."

“By pulling out of the debate, voters will be denied the opportunity to hear a civil exchange of ideas, a fundamental characteristic of our democratic process,” Crank said in the statement.

The post drew reaction from across the state, including from people saying Ferguson was afraid to debate the issues and that the voters deserved better.

The problem? Ferguson never formally agreed to the debate in the first place.

Ferguson's campaign said as much to 4 News Now in an email Friday morning, calling the claims "inaccurate and untruthful." The campaign said it was asking for retractions from the news outlets who reported it.

The campaign also sent 4 News Now emails between the campaign and the debate coalition as recently as August 21st. In that email, Crank was asking the Ferguson campaign the status if the debate invitation, saying Reichert's camp had committed and they needed an answer as to whether Ferguson would participate.

The Ferguson campaigned responded by saying "Unfortunately, I am not sure we will be able to make this work."

Friday afternoon, Crank wrote an amended statement, saying that using the words "withdraw" and "pulling out of the debate were too strong of a description to summarize the outcome.

She did explain the process of why the debate was canceled.

"Both campaigns initially stated they would 'save the date', and had proactive follow-up from each after the primary, we were told a formal confirmation would come if the other side did so first," she said. "After more than a week of back-and-forth with both teams, the Ferguson campaign, after the Reichert campaign originally declined, indicated they would participate if their opponent's campaign changed their mind and did so in writing.

"In good faith, we kept the lines of communication going, verbally and in writing. Soon, the Reichert campaign was formally committed.  After notifying the Ferguson campaign of this update, they chose without explanation to decline anyway.

"I completely own and apologize to our partners and community members for the terminology used, amid frustration, to convey the final outcome," Crank concluded.

Reichert posted on Twitter/X Thursday that he was "disappointed for the voters of Washington that Bob Ferguson is refusing to debate our very different visions for our state."

Ferguson and Reichert have two other debates scheduled. They are September 10th in Seattle and September 18th in Spokane.

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