September 1, 2009 - 11:58am
News

NJN drops debate delay request

The first gubernatorial debate will be on October 1 after all.

A spokeswoman for NJN confirmed that the network has dropped its request to the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) to reschedule the debate for October 22.

“After the Corzine campaign issued statements indicating that the Governor would participate in the debate regardless of the date, NJN withdrew its request this morning for a change of date and will hold the Election Law Enforcement Commission debate on October 1 as originally planned. Our goal in seeking the change was to ensure participation of all viable candidates in this race,” said Ronnie Weyl, the network’s Vice President for Public Affairs and Acting COO.

At an emergency telephonic meeting yesterday, ELEC’s four commissioners were deadlocked on whether to proceed with the requested date change.  An hour after the meeting, however, the Corzine campaign indicated that the Governor would participate in both ELEC-sponsored debates regardless of the dates for which they are scheduled.  

Matt Friedman is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at matt@politicsnj.com.