Republican Neel Kashkari is challenging Gov. Jerry Brown to debate him 10 times in the race for governor, echoing a call Brown made four years ago for 10 debates with Republican Meg Whitman.
Brown, a third-term Democrat, has been noncommittal about debating, while Kashkari, who is far behind in fundraising and public opinion polls, could benefit from the exposure debates afford.
Four years ago, when Brown was outspent by Whitman, he said the campaign should not be “decided on the airwaves in a scripted, prepackaged advertisement,” but “mano a mano, one candidate against the other.”
Kashkari used Brown’s remarks in recent radio interviews and in a letter to Brown on Monday to press the issue. He challenged Brown to at least one town hall-style contest and one formal debate in five regions: Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego and the Central Valley.
Dan Newman, a political spokesman for Brown, said in an email that Brown would consider the request.
“We’ll certainly consider debating,” he wrote, “providing we can work out the scheduling and details to offer something substantive and worthwhile to voters.”
Brown and Whitman ended up squaring off in three televised debates in 2010.
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