ZIMMER: IF McCAIN & OBAMA CAN DEBATE, SO CAN SENATOR LAUTENBERG

- Presidential Candidates Agree to Three Prime Time Debates, Lautenberg Is AWOL -

Lawrenceville, NJ – Dick Zimmer candidate for U.S. Senate issued the following statement on Senator Lautenberg’s refusal to commit to debates or joint candidate forums:

“With six weeks to go until Election Day, Senator Frank Lautenberg’s refusal to join me in a debate is astonishing. Senator Lautenberg has a duty to the voters he seeks to represent to appear with me on television to articulate his stance on the issues and try to explain why he deserves six more years in the U.S. Senate.

“The presidential candidates understand that the voters have a right to see them side by side and have agreed to three prime-time debates over the next several weeks. Why is Senator Lautenberg hiding? I can only conclude that he is afraid to run on his meager record or that he is no longer up to the job.

“After 24 years, New Jerseyans deserve a U.S. Senator who will address the energy disaster and the fiscal crisis facing our state and nation. I will be that Senator.”

Zimmer has accepted more than a dozen debate invitations without hesitation. Lautenberg has accepted none.

From The Courier Post, September 20th:

JEER: To U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who again is looking to get re-elected by staying silent.

Ever since he won the Republican Senate primary in June, former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer has made offers and accepted invitations to publicly debate Lautenberg. Lautenberg's camp seemingly has no answer. Now it's less than two months before Election Day and no debates have been announced.

Lautenberg, the man who, when he was first running for the Senate in 1982 wanted to debate his older Republican opponent "morning, noon and night," now doesn't seem to want New Jerseyans to have many chances to compare him to his opponent. He did this same thing in the spring when U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews was challenging him in the primary.

If Lautenberg wanted New Jerseyans to know where he stands on the issues, he would have already agreed to at least half a dozen debates. That he hasn't agreed to any shows he's content to use a cowardly tactic employed too often by candidates ahead in the polls in "safe" races. It's a shame for voters who should remember this silence on Election Day.