The Times and Democrat - Floyd won’t debate here

Karen Floyd, the Republican candidate for state superintendent of education, has declined an invitation to participate in a debate Monday at Claflin University.

Her campaign cites a scheduling conflict, but her opponent’s campaign manager said it’s her second pullout from a debate in two days.

Democratic candidate Jim Rex still plans to attend the event, which is now being billed as a “Forum on Issues in Education.” It will begin at 7 p.m. Monday in Ministers’ Hall.

“We had a scheduling conflict,” said Hogan Gidley, Floyd’s press secretary. “We’ve had (appearances) booked on her calendar for three months. The dates they had just weren’t open on our calendar, and we couldn’t move the events” to different days.

“It’s not that Claflin isn’t important, or that Orangeburg isn’t important,” Gidley said. “Claflin would have been a wonderful venue, but we couldn’t get it on the schedule.”

Gidley said voters will get to see at least two debates between the candidates before the Nov. 7 general election. At least one will be aired statewide on South Carolina Educational Television in late October.

Zeke Stokes, Rex’s campaign manager, said Rex has issued a standing offer that “we will debate any time, any place.”

Claflin and The Times and Democrat, along with WIS-TV, had proposed a debate on Sept. 25 or Sept. 27.

Stokes said the Rex campaign responded that “whatever the Floyd camp could arrange, we would be there. The Floyd campaign picked the date” of Monday.

“That’s what the college told me,” he said.

“They accepted this debate and withdrew” after Floyd “pulled out of another debate,” Stokes said. That one would have been held Oct. 19 in Greenville, he said.

Rex “will be there Monday night as scheduled” at Claflin, Stokes said. “They have changed the format to what will essentially be Jim presenting his plan for moving South Carolina schools forward and then taking questions from the audience for as long as they’re willing to stay.”

“This forum will be an opportunity for citizens to have an open dialogue about the future of education in our state,” said Dr. Tina Marshall-Bradley, dean of Claflin’s School of Education.

The forum is open to the public.

T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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