Democratic mayoral nominee Muriel E. Bowser created something of a stir this month when she announced that she would participate in only four debates with her fellow candidates.
The organizers aren’t using the D-word, to be clear: “If you call it a debate, you might jinx me,” said Ivan Lanier, D.C. advocacy director for the retirees’ advocacy group, which counts 89,000 members in the city.
Getting all three leading candidates aboard was “a very difficult process,” Lanier said. “I will just say the campaigns are very busy, and they have a lot of demands for their time.”
The format is calibrated to avoid back-and-forth exchanges between the candidates. Bowser and independents David A. Catania and Carol Schwartz will each have a half-hour block to answer the same questions in the same order. Washington Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes and University of the District of Columbia law school dean Shelley Broderick are moderating the event.
Lanier said he expects to hear in-depth commentary from each participant, even if there won’t be much in the way of inter-candidate colloquy. “There won’t be any back and forth,” he said. “We’ve seen too much of that.”
The Bowser campaign is not considering the AARP event to be a debate by any definition. “It’s a different thing; it’s not a debate or a forum,” said campaign manager Bo Shuff, who added that Bowser is likely to leave the event after her turn answering her questions to attend another event that night.