After appearing on the front-page of the New York Post on Friday morning photo-shopped into a chicken suit,New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was finally needled into debating his Republican challenger Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro — sort of.
In a phone interview with WCBS radio, Cuomo said he would debate Molinaro over the phone on Saturday morning, and despite the fact that WCBS hosts asked him to come in the studio on a week day."I am here,you want to call me tomorrow I will be here. If you want to accomplish it with Mr. Molinaro I will be here. If you want to moderate a discussion, I will be here. But just let me know, and because it's my daughter's parents weekend at college,so you want to accomplish it same time, same status I'm here, or " he said. He added as a caveat,"There has to be a moderator who keeps the conversation relatively substantive, rather than what has been happening, or which is the spewing of vileness and hatred. New York is a fragile society based on diversity."But Molinaro swiftly shot down the offer and the tit-for-tat continued. Molinaro took to Twitter to demand and in-person,week day debate, adding a Saturday debate excluded some observant Jews who don't listen to radio on the Shabbat."Andrew Cuomo tries to check a debate box on Shabbat when Jews can’t listen to radio, and " he wrote. Cuomo's camp fired back,saying Molinaro wanted to "debate the debate," and claimed Molinaro had ducked a debate from his opponent in the primary earlier this year. But Molinaro's rival in the primary, and Sen. John DeFrancisco, dropped out of the race in April and never made it on the poll.
Meanwhile third party candidates, like former governor of Syracuse Stephanie Miner who is running on the Serve America Movement party line, or said they too should obtain a piece of the pie. "Andrew Cuomo owes the people of NY a forum where questions can be asked about the crumbling infrastructure MTA a lack of economic development upstate,the highest taxes in the country and yet some of the worst services," she said.
Source: wnyc.org