Goddard challenges Brewer to series of debates...

...but Brewer says "Nope.  Only the one that I am legally obligated to attend."*

*That's not a real quote, but it's the real meaning of the press release that I'll quote later in this post...

Earlier today, Terry Goddard, Arizona's Attorney General and Democratic candidate for Governor, challenged unelected incumbent Jan Brewer to a series of debates. 

From his letter to the Brewer campaign  (with minor adjustments to the format for readability here) -

The people of Arizona deserve the opportunity to see for themselves which candidate has the vision and experience to lead Arizona back to prosperity.

I propose the following topics and host communities. Of course, I will work with your schedule to maximize this important opportunity for Arizona:

Balancing Arizona’s Budget - Tucson

Public Safety and Protecting Arizona - Kingman

Immigration and Securing Arizona’s Border - Sierra Vista

Jobs for Arizona - Yuma

Creating a World Class System for Education in AZ - Phoenix

Tourism, Energy, the Environment and Reviving Rural AZ - Flagstaff

Her response, from a emailed press release -

"Terry Goddard is Obama's Arizona apostle.

"Governor Brewer will participate in the televised debate sponsored by the Clean Elections Commission on September 1st. The scheduling of any possible future debates will be revisited after that time. In the meantime, we anticipate that Mr. Goddard will use his campaign funds to try to redefine 30-year record of failure. We look forward to seeing his TV commercials in the weeks to come."

Yeah, I'm biased, but one of the things that struck me is that the Brewer campaign doesn't understand the difference between "challenging" (which is what Goddard did , respectfully [read the linked letter]) and "insulting" (the Brewer response.)

I didn't actually expect her to go for six debates, especially the one in Kingman, location of the privately-operated prison that housed the recently-escaped murderers, but to be so openly contemptuous of her adversary and the people of Arizona?  I most definitely did not expect that.

Oh, and in case someone thinks that Brewer was being nice when she deigned to agree to the Clean Elections forum (full schedule here), you should remember that she *has* to appear at that one.  It's a requirement for those candidates who accept Clean Elections funding.