Waiting for debate
When Dina Titus wasn't serving as a state or federal lawmaker, she was a political science professor at UNLV. Now the Democratic candidate for Nevada's 1st Congressional District seat is providing a textbook lesson in expediency.
Ms. Titus, a former state senator and former representative of Nevada's 3rd Congressional District, thus far has refused to debate her Republican rival, retired Navy Cmdr. Chris Edwards. Her reasons for refusing his challenge to three separate debates are obvious: Registered Democratic voters outnumber registered Republicans by more than a 2-to-1 margin in the urban Las Vegas district, she enjoys substantially stronger name recognition than he does, and she has raised far more money.
A Titus-Edwards debate has more upside for him than it does for her - assuming she couldn't beat him. So the professor won't defend her ideas and positions in a public forum opposite Mr. Edwards.
At some point, Ms. Titus no doubt taught her students about the importance of political discourse and an informed electorate. Now she's putting her own ambitions ahead of those democratic virtues. As we wrote last month, voters deserve to see, first-hand, the intellectual rigor of their representatives. Ms. Titus should agree to debate Mr. Edwards - and soon.
