Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers will have a num­ber of oppor­tu­ni­ties to watch can­di­dates for fed­er­al and statewide office face each oth­er on the debate stage next month, the Wash­ing­ton State Debate Coali­tion announced this morning.

The Coali­tion and Braver Angels, a non­prof­it work­ing to cre­ate dia­logue between pro­gres­sives and con­ser­v­a­tives, are orga­niz­ing debates or can­di­date forums for U.S. Sen­ate, Sec­re­tary of State, U.S. House, and even State Sen­ate in the 26th LD. Here is the sched­ule that they announced this morning:

• Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 15th: 26th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict (Emi­ly Randall/Jesse L. Young) Debate at 3 PM at the Norm Dicks Gov­ern­ment Cen­ter in Bre­mer­ton, in part­ner­ship with Braver Angels.
• Tues­day, Octo­ber 18th: Wash­ing­ton Sec­re­tary of State (Julie Anderson/Steve Hobbs) debate at 7 PM in Schnee­beck Hall at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Puget Sound in Taco­ma. (UPDATE: This debate was can­celed.)
• Sun­day, Octo­ber 23rd: U.S. Sen­ate can­di­date forum (Pat­ty Murray/Tiffany Smi­ley) at 5 PM at the Myr­tle Wold­son Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter at Gon­za­ga Uni­ver­si­ty in Spokane, in part­ner­ship with the Spokesman-Review and League of Women Voters.
• Tues­day, Octo­ber 25th: 9th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict debate (Doug Basler/Adam Smith) at 2 PM in Pig­ott Hall on the cam­pus of Seat­tle Uni­ver­si­ty, in part­ner­ship with Braver Angels.
• Tues­day, Octo­ber 25th: U.S. Sen­ate debate (Pat­ty Murray/Tiffany Smi­ley) at 7 PM in Pig­ott Hall on the cam­pus of Seat­tle Uni­ver­si­ty (pre­sum­ing both can­di­dates are avail­able and will­ing to attend).
• Fri­day, Octo­ber 28th: 8th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict debate (Matt Larkin/Kim Schri­er) at 7 PM in McConnell Audi­to­ri­um at Cen­tral Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty in Ellensburg.

“This is an excit­ing elec­tion sea­son, and we are pleased to play an inte­gral role in facil­i­tat­ing can­di­date debates and mak­ing sure as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to see them,” said Ali­cia Crank, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Seat­tle City­Club, the Coali­tion’s orga­niz­er. “Thanks to our high­er edu­ca­tion, com­mu­ni­ty and media part­ners, the Wash­ing­ton State Debate Coali­tion is expand­ing its civic ser­vice this year to include debates in com­mu­ni­ties across Washington.”

“From the envi­ron­ment and edu­ca­tion to the econ­o­my and elec­tions, it is crit­i­cal that this year’s can­di­dates share their vision for the future and that we pro­vide vot­ers with direct access to leaders.”

TVW, Wash­ing­ton State’s equiv­a­lent of C‑SPAN, will tele­vise the events and pro­vide tech­ni­cal lead­er­ship to make them acces­si­ble to Washingtonians.

“TVW is proud to part­ner with the WSDC on this year’s debates and pro­vide vot­ers with direct, unfil­tered access to can­di­dates seek­ing elect­ed office,” said TVW Pres­i­dent & CEO Renee Rad­cliff Sin­clair. “Debates remain a vital part of our demo­c­ra­t­ic process and the cit­i­zens of Wash­ing­ton deserve to hear direct­ly from the can­di­dates who want to rep­re­sent them. Pro­vid­ing open access to state gov­ern­ment is an inte­gral part of our work and we are excit­ed to be a part of the Debate Coali­tion’s pro­gram­ming again this year.”

The North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute is one of the Coali­tion’s Sup­port­ing Media Part­ners, as you can see from the coali­tion’s web­site.

Repub­li­can U.S. Sen­ate can­di­date Tiffany Smi­ley has been open­ly clam­or­ing for oppor­tu­ni­ties to debate Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, while the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty — which has gone all-in on Smi­ley — has been blam­ing Mur­ray on social net­works for a lack of announced can­di­date debate dates.

Seat­tle Times reporter Jim Brun­ner doc­u­ment­ed their impa­tience yes­ter­day in a sto­ry that looked at past U.S. Sen­ate debates in the state.

Mur­ray’s cam­paign has con­sis­tent­ly said that Mur­ray would par­tic­i­pate in debates, just like in the past, and that the sched­ul­ing was being worked on.

In recent elec­tion cycles, the debate sched­ule has usu­al­ly been announced some­time in Sep­tem­ber. Elec­tion Day is as late as it can be this year (Novem­ber 8th), so this week is about when our team at NPI expect­ed a sched­ule to drop. And not only has it dropped, but it’s more expan­sive than in past years, with events for the 26th LD and the 9th CD. There is no 3rd CD event, however.

We thank City­Club and the Coali­tion for doing the work to wran­gle these events, and we’re look­ing for­ward to cov­er­ing them next month. Mark your calendars!