After months of challenging Rob Andrews and receiving no response, Dale Glading will finally get his chance to debate his opponent in Gloucester County tonight. However, this will not be a one-on-one match up. This debate will also include Green Party candidate Mark Heacock, and no party candidate Margaret Chapman.
For anyone who would like to attend the debate, it is being held at Gloucester County Community Church, which is located at 359 Chapel Heights Road in Sewell. The event will begin at 7:00 PM. Interestingly, the debate will be jointly moderated by Assemblyman Paul Moriarity and Assemblyman Domenick DiCicco.
While a debate in this blue district is a welcome addition to the final weeks of the campaign season, I can’t help but assume that it will hardly be a serious affair. If you recall, last week’s New York Gubernatorial debate included third party candidates, notably from the “Rent is Too Damn High” Party. This completely diluted and trivialized the event, and caused the amount of time dedicated to actual candidates to be slashed. Every minute taken by faux-candidates is a minute that voters of the 1st District could have spent hearing Congressman Andrews discuss his record over the last two years, or Dale Glading’s pledge to tackle the fiscal issues constituents care about. This format undoubtably favors an incumbent, but we are sure that Glading will make sure to hit Andrews hard on his votes for the stimulus bill, Obamacare, Cap and Tax, and other big ticket Democrat public relations failures of 2010.
