Once obligatory, debates continue to fade from Ohio political landscape

COLUMBUS, Ohio – When Republican then-Gov. John Kasich declined to debate his Democratic opponent in the 2014 election, he was the first incumbent Ohio governor to do so for nearly 40 years.

But if current Republican Gov. Mike DeWine also ends up not participating in a debate for this year’s election – something that seems more likely than not, given the tellingly noncommittal stock answer he gives when he’s asked about the subject – it officially will become a trend.

With a little more than two months to go until the Nov. 8 election, DeWine hasn’t officially said “no” to a debate. But he’s set no firm commitment, either, to debating his Democratic challenger, ex-Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. When he’s asked, he said he’s thinking about it.

“I’m out every single day talking with the people of the state of Ohio,” DeWine said on Friday. “There’s been no governor that’s had more press conferences than I had, answered more questions asked by the news media.”

But DeWine has telegraphed his plans to not agree to a debate, in part by taking the position that some of his existing commitments, like plans to attend an upcoming endorsement interview with the editorial board for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer are themselves de facto debates.

DeWine also has a recent history of dodging debates with Republican primary opponents, including in his 2018 race against then-Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and earlier this year, when he defeated ex-congressman Jim Renacci and Columbus-area farmer Joe Blystone.

Debates as an institution are healthier when it comes to this year’s U.S. Senate race between Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican author/investor J.D. Vance. But it’s not been smooth sailing.

In dueling public announcements, Ryan last week announced plans to participate in three debates, while Vance said he’d agreed to two debates. The details didn’t line up though, with Ryan and Vance both agreeing to debate in Cincinnati on different dates, and Vance agreeing to a second debate in Cleveland while Ryan’s agreed events are happening in Akron and Youngstown.

If Ryan and Vance debate twice, it will be fewer than recent past Ohio Senate races. In 2012, 2016 and 2018, Republican and Democratic candidates each year agreed to three debates.

But Vance has publicly said he’s looking forward to debating Ryan – his debate performances played a role in ex-President Donald Trump’s decision to endorse him leading up to the Republican primary in May – and a campaign source said he may agree to a third debate, schedule permitting.

The process of debating is a longstanding tradition in politics. Supporters of the institution say it offers voters a chance to see candidates in a more spontaneous setting, showing how they’re able to think on their feet while getting them somewhat off their tightly scripted campaign messaging.

They also can produce moments that change the dynamics of a race. For example, a March debate among the candidates seeking the U.S. Senate nomination, where a vulgar, near-physical altercation occured between two candidates, Mike Gibbons and Josh Mandel, in retrospect appears to have been a turning point in the race, contributing to Gibbons falling in the polls and Trump endorsing Vance.

But detractors, including campaign operatives, say debates have become less relevant as other communication channels have opened up, and as mainstream media lose their power as traditional gatekeepers of information.

A standard political calculation also is that debates can be risky to candidates. By agreeing to a debate, a frontrunner could compromise their position by helping bring attention to their lesser-known opponent, or by making a public error that can be used against them.

“I think debates present an opportunity for those who are interested to hear the two candidates answer questions that they have not been exposed to before,” Ted Strickland, a former Democratic Ohio governor, said in an interview on Tuesday. “They may come up with a canned answer, but it’s healthy for debates to be conducted and healthy in terms of our democracy. Because so many campaigns consist of pre-planned news releases or TV or radio or Internet ads.”

But it’s DeWine, who’s both a dyed-in-the-wool political traditionalist as well as a consummate politician, who might hasten the demise of debates’ central role in Ohio’s governor’s races.

Kasich set the precedent in 2014, when he declined to debate his Democratic opponent, Ed FitzGerald, who at the time was Cuyahoga County executive and an underdog in the race. The two appeared together just once, at an editorial board meeting for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. FitzGerald’s campaign imploded and Kasich won by 31 points.

Kasich broke from his Republican predecessors in the 2014 campaign. Ex-Republican Gov. George Voinovich debated Democratic state Sen. Robert Burch in 1994, a year Voinovich won by a historic 47 percentage points. Then-Gov. Bob Taft debated his opponent, Tim Hagan, in 2002 as he cruised to re-election by nearly 20 points.

And Strickland debated his Republican opponent, Ken Blackwell, in the 2006 election, even as polls correctly forecasted a banner year for Democrats in Ohio.

“I debated because, and I don’t want to sound noble, but I just felt like it was what ought to be expected out of a candidate, to be willing to take questions and answer them publicly,” Strickland said Tuesday.

(Strickland didn’t debate P.G. Sittenfeld, his opponent in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary in 2016, although Strickland said Tuesday he did so not out of a political calculation, but because he felt that Sittenfeld had misled him about his intentions to run in the race.)

Strickland said DeWine, who he talks to occasionally, should agree to debate Whaley for the good of voters.

“The governor may be thinking, ‘Why should I debate her? Because I’ve got all these built-in advantages.’ And that may be the decision he makes politically. But is that the right decision for the citizens of Ohio who are trying to make up their minds about two candidates? I don’t know,” Strickland said.

In the aftermath of Kasich’s 2014 decision to not debate FitzGerald, a group of civic organizations and legacy media outlets in 2018 formed the Ohio Debate Commission. The nonpartisan group aims to help persuade candidates to debate by offering a neutral, professional environment, while also pressuring those who otherwise might not participate. (Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer initially were part of the organization’s board, but no longer are.)

The organization has hosted multiple debates, including in the 2018 governor’s race between DeWine and Democrat Rich Cordray. The debate commission also held events earlier this year for the Republican and Democratic primary elections for governor, and the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

But when, earlier this week, the debate commission announced its events for this year’s governor, U.S. Senate and Ohio Supreme Court chief justice races, only Democrats had agreed to participate.

Dave Luketic, who managed DeWine’s 2018 campaign, said generally, that debates have less to offer the public than they used to.

And for campaigns, they can reach a wider audience through social media and other forms of digital advertising, he said.

“Campaigns respond to the electorate. They’re built to win. And if it was a big deal, they would just do them. But if voters need the information now, they can get it from anywhere. They’re not reliant on the debate format to understand a candidate’s positions,” he said.

Luketic said it’s up to debate organizers to try to make the events more relevant to voters. And, he said the Ohio Debate Commission would benefit from more involvement from political operatives, especially Republicans, on its board to build trust with campaigns.

“I think they’re pretty hard-nosed in their tactics. Which I appreciate. But that isn’t necessarily getting them anywhere. The days that they call a debate and the candidates have to show up are over with. It doesn’t do anything. It just annoys everyone on the campaigns and confuses the voters,” he said.

Dan Moulthrop, CEO of the City Club of Cleveland and president of the Ohio Debate Commission board, said he thinks there’s still a case that debates, and his group’s mission, are important.

“The dynamics in the statewide races right now, particularly the high-level races, are exactly the reason why we believed at the very beginning that an organization like the debate commission could help strengthen the political climate in Ohio,” Moulthrop said. “And there’s this trend toward the perspective that there’s short-term gains to be made by avoiding debates. But short-term gains for candidates and campaigns rarely are in the best interest of political institutions, political norms and the strength of democracy itself.”