Politics
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Democratic Troy Jackson announced Friday that he accepted four October debates against Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
Jackson agreed to debate the five-term Republican incumbent about a week after she agreed to four debates and had pressed for one in early September. The former Allagash logger had been pushing to have at least two of the debates in a town-hall format, which he said Collins had refused after years of refusing “unscripted questions directly from Mainers.”
The announcement came as the pair and their allied groups have increasingly attacked each other in one of the pivotal Senate matchups as Democrats push to retake the chamber. It also came after Jackson had kicked off town halls across the state, including three this week.
“Susan Collins has spent 25 years avoiding public town halls, so I’m glad she’ll at least have to stand on a stage with me four times this October and answer for her record,” Jackson said in a statement.
Collins, whose team has said she prefers small-group meetings with constituents as opposed to town halls, “meets with thousands of Mainers every year, at events and in meetings across the state, where they can ask her questions directly,” campaign spokesperson Blake Kernen said earlier this week.
“It’s great that Troy Jackson has finally agreed to the four debates that we announced eight days ago, but it’s telling that he still refuses to participate in a debate next week,” Kernen said Friday.
She noted that on Aug. 25, Jackson said he was willing to debate the next day, but now the first debate won’t be until 40 days later on Oct. 6, after early voting begins.
“By contrast, [former Maine House Speaker] Sara Gideon and Susan Collins had two debates in September [2020],” Kernen said. “Troy won’t even agree to one.”
Jackson agreed to debates on Oct. 6 hosted by WGME, Oct. 8 by WMTW, Oct. 13 by WABI and WAGM, and Oct. 15 by News Center Maine, Portland Press Herald and Maine Public with a live audience and questions from Mainers at Gracie Theater in Bangor.
Collins last month turned down an invitation to a debate co-hosted by CNN and the Bangor Daily News. Jackson never responded to that debate invitation.