Vancouver gubernatorial debate on thin ice

The proposed gubernatorial debate that was planned for Vancouver in the middle of October is now in server limbo, Rich Roesler is reporting.

At issue is the start time, which was originally scheduled for noon, then changed to 11:00 AM. Now it appears that the Rossi camp, who had set the previous two times and dates, wants to bump it up even further to 10:30 AM in order to accommodate a fundraiser planned for the same day.

Team Gregoire, however, isn't budging, and the disagreement has set forth a round of memos and e-mails between the campaigns.

"The facts are the facts," Gregoire communications director Deborah Carnes e-mailed Rossi campaign manager Afton Swift. "We both agreed to an 11 a.m. debate and your campaign pulled the plug. We're still planning on being in Vancouver at 11 a.m. on Oct. 13. Our commitment has never changed."

Swift, however, was unfazed and called some of Gregoire campaign's actions "petulant" and countered in his own meme, "Last I heard, the two campaigns were only half an hour apart."

The schedule now is for Gregoire to give a town hall instead at that time, unless the two sides work out their differences. Read Roesler's detailed description of accounts here.