West Virginia Metro News Talkline host Hoppy Kercheval said both Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams’ gubernatorial campaigns have “confirmed their willingness to debate” with the outlet in a Sept. 24 email to WVPB. Kercheval wrote that no date is set, but the debate “will likely be the week of October 28” with statewide radio and video streams.
On Tuesday morning, the Williams campaign released a statement that a different debate at Huntington TV station WOWK had been canceled. However, none of the five registered gubernatorial candidates told WVPB they had confirmed their or other campaigns’ participation with WOWK. On Tuesday afternoon, WOWK released a statement that they were “unable to reach an agreement with the candidates.”
WOWK Station Manager Sean Banks sent invitations to all five candidates – including Libertarian candidate Erika Klie Kolenich, Mountain candidate Chase Linko-Looper, and Constitution candidate S. Marshall Wilson. In documents Linko-Looper and Wilson forwarded to WVPB, that invite included an Oct. 30 live air date for “qualified candidates,” with an attached “Nexstar Debate Participation Criteria” document.
Those qualifications required that candidates pass a 5 percent primary or 10 percent general election polling minimum and have a minimum of $100,000 in monetary donations “on the most recent official forms filed with the appropriate election authority.”…