Recent polling suggests that Democratic incumbent Mark Udall holds a narrow lead over Republican Cory Gardner in Colorado's US Senate race. But the race is firmly in the 'toss-up' catregory; President Obama is deeply unpopular in the state, and Gardner is running a strong, disciplined campaign. When the two nominees met up for an in-person (un-televised) debate last weekend, neutral observers chalked the exchange up as a
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"For the first time in CBS 4 history, an incumbent US Senator has declined to debate his opponent live on our air. In fact, Sen. Mark Udall is not doing a debate on any of the four major network television stations...
As correspondent Shaun Boyd points out in the package, Team Udall sent a brash letter to the Gardner campaign in June, challenging the Republican to "a series of open and honest debates." Gardner was perplexed at the time, since he'd accepted virtually every debate invitation he'd received. Now Udall wants to limit the number of those "open and honest" forums, and is working to ensure that as few voters see them as possible. Other vulnerable Democrats are adopting a similar approach. New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen has scrupulously avoided holding open town hall meetings (a Granite State staple), and North Carolina's Kay Hagan is bowing out of major debates (she did poorly in her first meeting with Republican Thom Tillis; the GOP is now hammering her for dodging debates, a criticism she successfully leveled against her GOP opponent in 2008). Perhaps these Senators would prefer not to be challenged over their
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