No governor's debate. No Lake interview. How PBS botched Katie Hobbs-Kari Lake debate drama

If you’re a voter still trying to figure out who you’re going to support in the Arizona governor’s race, on Wednesday things went from bad to worse.

And they were pretty bad already.

Originally Arizona PBS and the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission partnered for a proposed debate between Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs and Republican candidate Kari Lake. First, the debate became a non-debate when Hobbs declined to participate, becoming a one-sided interview with Lake instead.

Yesterday, after some ill-considered back-door deal making it almost became two separate interviews. And then poof!

It all went away.

It played out in real-time as one of the more bizarre days in a campaign that's been odd from the start. Twitter was the best way to keep up, as various members of the Arizona media found out more information.

Now it's all left us, at the moment at least, right back where we started weeks ago, with no debate and any sort of interviews up in the air.

“When a story continues for a long time it is said to have ‘legs,’ Garrett Archer, the data guru for ABC 15 News in Phoenix, tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “The PBS debate story has a regenerating lizard's tail.”

Sounds about right.

Arizona PBS shoulders much of the blame — though in fairness, no one really looks good coming out of this mess.

No debate: Now you can't watch the 'non-debate' between Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake

Hobbs wouldn't agree to a debate with Lake, who then called her a coward

The debate fell through in September when Hobbs said she wouldn’t take the stage with Lake, on the grounds that she felt Lake was a conspiracy theorist who would make a mockery of the event.

And she might have. It wouldn’t have been off-brand for Lake to spend the entirety of the interview railing against Arizona PBS and the media, no matter what the questions were — questions like whether she believes Donald Trump won the 2020 election, or what her stance on abortion is.

But we’ll never know.

The Hobbs camp proposed, among other things, individual town-hall type interviews with both candidates. The commission rejected the proposal.

“The Commission gave Secretary Hobbs a full and fair public hearing and, consistent with the law, rejected her proposal,” Thomas Collins, the committee’s executive director, said on Wednesday, Oct. 12 — after the rails came off the clown car.

But I’m getting ahead of things.

Nice run: Ted Simons on 15 years as host of 'Arizona Horizon'

How a debate became a non-debate

What was to be a debate between the two candidates turned into Ted Simons, host of “Arizona Horizon” and the would-be debate moderator, interviewing Lake, an event scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

But nothing is what we’re getting, at least for now.

Hobbs appeared on MSNBC on Wednesday morning, a favorite spot for her, and said that she would indeed be granted her own interview on PBS, like Lake.

Which, evidently, was news to the commission.

They didn’t take it well. They are partners in the debates with Arizona PBS, remember? Or were supposed to be. At the very least this should have been a joint decision, negotiated with Hobbs instead of the channel forging its own deal with the candidate.

Lake reacted about like you’d expect, releasing a statement titled, “Kari Lake Statement on PBS’ Betrayal.” Just so you know what you’re getting.

Election guide: November 2022

City races | School boards | State | Governor
| Ballot measures | Federal races | How to vote

“We just learned hours before airtime of tonight’s Clean Elections Commission debate that PBS has unilaterally caved to Katie Hobbs’ demands and bailed her out from the consequences of her cowardly decision to avoid debating me on stage,” the statement says. “As the CEC's broadcast partner, PBS’ actions are a slap in the face to the commissioners of the CEC and a betrayal of their efforts to put on an actual debate.”

Then the commission announced it was postponing the interview, saying it “will identify a new venue, partner, and date when the interview will be broadcast.”

You wonder if it ever will. And if so, where.

In the meantime, we get nothing.

What's the big deal with 2 interviews, anyway?

What’s wrong with the notion of separate interviews? Nothing, in theory. In actual practice, look no further than “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, in which Hobbs and Lake appeared, one after the other. It was a pointless exercise, talking points regurgitated with little or no pushback from the host, Major Garrett.

It's better than nothing. And debates aren't perfect. Often candidates just ignore questions and answer whatever they want. But at least it puts the candidates face-to-face, and sometimes something memorable happens.

I believe Simons is a strong enough — and fair enough — moderator to keep things from getting out of hand in an actual debate. But again, we’ll never know.

All of this is a gift to Lake, who relentlessly mocks Hobbs as a coward for not debating.

And yes, a debate would be good TV. But it would also offer Arizona voters a chance to see the candidates together, for once.

If it turns into a circus, so be it — how Hobbs reacts to that would be telling, as well.

Instead, thanks to refusals and bungled proposals, nobody wins, and voters lose.

One more: Here's when the next Jan. 6 committee hearing happens and how to watch

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

Subscribe to azcentral.com today. What are you waiting for?

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona PBS blew it with Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake. Now voters lose