After squabbling over the date, the candidates in the special election for the congressional race have agreed to a debate sponsored by Albany talk radio station WROW.
The debate will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 26 at the Holiday Inn Express on Wolf Road in Colonie, said Sherman Baldwin, program director for the radio station.
That announcement came a day after Republican James Tedisco’s campaign staff announced the debate would be held March 24. A spokesman for Democrat Scott Murphy said Tedisco unilaterally declared that date after skipping a planning meeting with the League of Women Voters, which is organizing the event.
But the Tedisco camp said WROW offered a March 24 debate date and Tedisco accepted.
All three candidates, including Libertarian Eric Sundwall, have now agreed on the March 26 date.
Murphy spokesman Ryan Rudominer said March 24 is the date that the Albany NBC affiliate, WNYT-13, wants to host a debate. Murphy has committed to attending the WNYT debate, but the Tedisco camp has not yet.
Murphy and Tedisco also will go head-to-head in an AARP forum March 3 in Saratoga Springs and a March 9 Poughkeepsie Journal editorial board meeting.
The Tedisco camp makes a big deal of being “the first” to publicly request debates and commit to them, while the Murphy camp has the most debates listed on its schedule.
Murphy also plans to attend a March 19 debate sponsored by the Albany Times-Union and WMHT.
Sundwall, who will appear on the ballot if he collects at least 3,500 signatures between Monday and March 7, also has been invited to debate either candidate on radio station WGY with Al Roney.