That lesson being: If the cook fears the heat, he’s wise to avoid the kitchen.

Voters in southern Arizona may get to see only one debate in the special election to fill former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ seat in Congress, and Republicans blame Ron Barber for that.

UPDATE—see below

KUAT-TV, Channel 6, will broadcast a debate between Democrat Barber (top), Republican Jesse Kelly (bottom) and Green Party candidate Charlie Manolakis from 6-7 p.m. May 16.

But a second debate, planned for May 14 by Tucson high school students, was canceled last week after the Barber campaign backed out, said Arlo Ogden, Vail Academy and High School government teacher. The Barber campaign counters that it is attending lots of events in the district that will reach “as many people as possible.”

There are people in Vail, lots of them. Constituents, too. And their kids.

Ogden said his students in far east Tucson began organizing congressional debates two years ago, drawing several hundred attendees and online viewers to each of two Republican primary debates in 2010 and in April, for the primary in the special election.

“several hundred attendees.” See—I TOLD you there were lots of people in Vail!

During the first event, conservative radio host John Justice moderated; during the second, a senior in the class did so.

For the debate this month, Ogden said, Kelly and Manolakis agreed to participate, but the Barber campaign asked for “trusted, independent” moderators to be secured before making a commitment.

“I was not real enthused about the verbage. … Those are my students they’re talking about, and they’re questioning their integrity,” Ogden said, adding he would not have used a moderator with a political bent, like Justice, for a general-election debate.

Ogden said he found two local news reporters to field questions, in addition to lining up security, media coverage and a sign-language interpreter.

“two local news reporters?” Gosh, I hope they’re weren’t from the Weekly. Jesse Kelly stands as much chance of getting fair treatment from the Weekly as a celluloid dog does of chasing an asbestos cat through Hell. As far as many local Republicans are concerned, the Star isn’t much better. (See below—I hope we’re wrong about the Star. I guess we’ll find out next Wednesday).

Tucson media seem to have very chummy ties with Democrats (cough cough Mark Kimble CJ Karamargin cough). So, as an Old Pueblo Republican, when I see the phrase “two local news reporters,” I get a bit nervous.

“We got everything, I thought, hammered out,” Ogden said. But he soon received a call from the Barber campaign declining the invitation.

These kids were going to do this the Monday night before their finals,” he said. “My students have never received anything less than superior reviews (of the debates). When we got that phone call, it was kind of disappointing.”

To be fair, the Barber campaign says “the campaign did not ‘promise to do something and then back out.’” And, again to be fair, Ron Barber IS willingly going into a kitchen, of sorts:

Campaign manager Jennifer Cox told the Republic that Barber is “looking forward to a robust debate” with Kelly.

She added that Barber “has the utmost respect for the students at Vail Academy” and that he is looking forward to visiting the government class later in the week to talk about his campaign.

(Emphasis added).

Good for Barber. Let’s see how convincing his explanation is, for why he chose not to participate in the Vail debate—a decision that apparently caused the debate to be canceled.

Visiting a high school government class isn’t the same thing as debating in public, for ALL your constituents to see. It’s a lot harder for the cook to control the heat in a public debate to his liking. Or his party’s.

UPDATE. There will be, after all, a debate that the public can attend.

There will be two debates in District 8, the Barber campaign announced late Monday.

The event moderated by the Arizona Daily Star will take place May 23 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road.

So, there will be one debate that the public can attend. Unfortunately…just one. (The KUAT debate on May 16th is not open to the public). And, there will only be two debates for this entire general campaign.

That appears to suit the Democrats just fine.

Is Ron Barber ducking debates with Jesse Kelly?

The Arizona Daily Independent(ADI) reported this weekend that Ron Barber refused to participate in a Congressional District 8 (CD8) candidate debate sponsored by Vail Academy and High School (VAHS). According to the ADI article, both Kelly and Charles Manolakis, the Green Party candidate, accepted Vail Academy’s offer to debate.

So, what’s up with the Vail debate now? A visit to the Facebook page for VAHS’ “Congressional Special Election Debate shows the following statement at the top of the page: “Unfortunately, VAHS was unable to secure all three candidates therefore we are canceling the debate scheduled for May 14th.”

What a shame.

I looked for information on the other debates that are scheduled—and it seems that there’s only ONE CD8 special election debate scheduled, on May 23rd.

Only ONE debate? Why not more? The CD8 congressional seat merits only ONE debate between the candidates?

Did someone decide that CD8 voters already know everything they need to know about the candidates, and where they stand on the issues? (If so, I’d sure like to meet that “someone.”)

I asked the Kelly campaign why there weren’t more debates. John Ellinwood from the Kelly campaign sent me this reply: “Jesse was looking forward to a series of public debates around the district but Ron Barber seems reluctant to discuss the issues important to Southern Arizona.” (Emphasis added). Specifically, Kelly was willing to do “4 or 5 or more [debates] if needed.”

I was looking forward to a series of debates between the candidates in CD8. Weren’t we all? In fact, isn’t it surprising that we appear to be heading for a Congressional election with JUST ONE debate?

Southeastern Tucson needs an aggressive, capable voice in Congress. The tried-and-true way of determining who the best candidate is—head-to-head debates. The more debates, the better. At the very least, we shouldn’t settle for JUST ONE.

Debates were good enough for Lincoln and Douglas; they should be good enough for us.

Here’s hoping that ALL of the candidates agree to several debates, in between now and the election. Voters deserve to see and hear, for themselves, who’s the best person for this critical job.

UPDATE: This is an excerpt from Wednesday’s Arizona Daily Star article on CD8 debates

[Referring to the May 23rd debate] This is the only currently scheduled debate in which voters will be able to watch live as Barber and Kelly discuss the issues facing the district in a head-to-head format prior to the June 12 Congressional District 8 special election. It will be held in the JCC Ballroom, which seats in excess of 500 people. Seating will be first come, first served.

KUAT Channel 6 will air a candidate forum featuring Barber and Kelly on May 16 at 6 p.m. that will be taped earlier in the day. The taping of the forum is not open to the public.

Students at Vail Academy and High School tried to organize a third debate, but Barber declined the invitation.

Two debates makes the most sense, said Jennifer Cox, Barber’s campaign manager, who didn’t elaborate further as to why they declined.

(All emphasis was added).

How powerful, how influential can your Congressman/woman be if they’re a member of the MINORITY party in the House of Representatives? Missouri Senator John Danforth knows.

Back in the early 1990s, when Republicans had been the minority party in the House of Representatives for decades, Danforth fielded a question similar to the one that opens this article.

Danforth’s response (I’m paraphrasing here): To be a member of the MINORITY party in the House of Representatives…is to be dead. Translation: Congressmen/women whose party isn’t the majority party in the House of Representatives, have little or no chance to get meaningful things done.

The House of Representatives is much different than the Senate. The House’s rules allow the majority party to dominate debate and determine which bills do (or do not) get acted upon, much more so than the Senate. Moreover, the leadership of both political parties in the House have much more control over their members than Senate party leaders do. It’s a lot easier—and much less risky—for a Senator to ignore the Senate Majority Leader than it is for a Congressman/woman to irritate the Speaker of the House.

In other words—the majority party runs the House of Representatives, and party leaders run the majority party…so, the majority party leaders (the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader and Majority Whip) run the House. (Think of it as an example of the transitive property of American politics.)

The Republican Party runs the House of Representatives. It’s going to run the House after the November election. I encourage Democrats or members of the media (yes, I repeat myself) to show convincing evidence to the contrary. (Please make my day by citing Nancy Pelosi as your source).

We’re going to see major, major changes in Washington over the next few years. Every community, every region in America is going to need representatives that can effectively and ably speak up for the needs of their constituents.

But, that’s not going to be enough.

No, we’ll need representatives who can actually get the House leadership to listen to them. In the world we live in, representatives from the majority party in the House of Representatives find it a lot easier to get things done, and to protect the needs of their constituents.

That’s the reality of politics. I’m sure Pima County Democrats, who spend lots of money to advertise for Republican and Libertarian congressional candidates, understand the realities of politics.

Tucson needs a Congressman/woman that the House leadership will pay attention to. We DON’T need one that the House leadership will ignore. Translation: we need a Republican to win CD8 and CD2.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll lay out in more detail the reasons why the Old Pueblo needs a Republican in Congress.