Miller, Laxalt agree to first AG debate
The two Nevada attorney general candidates, Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller and Republican Adam Laxalt, on Tuesday agreed to their first debate on Sept. 20, hosted by the Nevada Press Association in Las Vegas.
The debate will be moderated by Steve Sebelius, a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, who has hosted AG debates in the past.
Barry Smith, the executive director of the Press Organization, said the debate will coincide with its annual meeting to be held this year at the Aliante hotel-casino. He said journalists are most interested in the attorney general’s job because the position involves enforcing the open meeting law and dealing with public records and transparency.
The hourlong debate is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and include a question- and-answer session from the audience, Smith said. The association tapes the forum and posts it on YouTube, but it isn’t televised.
The press group has a history of hosting attorney general forums every four years. In 2010, Sebelius moderated the debate when Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto successfully ran for re-election. She is termed out now.
In a news release, Miller also said he had agreed to debate Laxalt on “Ralston Reports,” hosted by Jon Ralston in October.
Robert Uithoven, an adviser to Laxalt’s campaign, suggested Laxalt probably wouldn’t agree to debate on “Ralston Reports.”
“If we’re going to agree to debate, it would have to be before an audience that is impartial,” Uithoven said. “And that’s not going to happen on that show.”
Both sides said they are open to more debates in one of the most competitive races on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The Laxalt campaign said it hoped the two major newspapers in the state, the Review-Journal and the Reno Gazette-Journal, would host debates with broadcast partners. The Miller campaign seemed eager to hold several face-offs as well.
“Ross has accepted two invitations for debates and is currently considering other requests to fill out the schedule,” Jocelyn Steinberg, Miller’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Find her on Twitter: @lmyerslvrj.
