Published: October 06, 2008 12:19 pm         

Inhofe, Rice will finally meet in Senate race

OKLAHOMA CITY — Republican incumbent Jim Inhofe and Democratic opponent Andrew Rice have been trading charges through ads and interviews for weeks, but they have never met on the campaign trail.

That will change this week when they face off in a 45-minute televised debate in Tulsa, the only one that has been scheduled a month away from the general election. It will be aired by KJRH, Channel 2, on Tuesday, beginning at 5:15 p.m.

The Rice camp is charging that Inhofe is dodging debates. Campaign manager Geri Prada said Rice agreed to debates on television stations in Oklahoma City and Lawton and had hoped for six televised meetings.

"Jim Inhofe clearly doesn't think he needs to discuss his record with Oklahomans, which is why he is only appearing in one debate," she said.

Josh Kivett, Inhofe's campaign manager, said Inhofe was "ready to get out and travel the state and talk to voters one on one."

"That's the way Jim always campaigns," he said.

Kivett Inhofe was agreeable to a debate on KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, to be co-sponsored by the state chapter of the AARP. But he said nothing could ever be arranged because of scheduling conflicts.

Tres Savage, Rice's press secretary, said he understood there is a possibility the Tulsa debate will be shown on C-SPAN.

Prada said Rice, a 35-year-old freshman state senator from Oklahoma City, "expects this to be a challenging debate," going up against a veteran politician with a lot of experience debating issues on the Senate floor and in past campaigns.

She said Inhofe, 73, is "very skilled and he will be well prepared."

Besides the KJRH debate, the two candidates are set to face each other on Oct. 14 before The Oklahoma Chamber, another event set in Tulsa, where Inhofe was once mayor.

At one point, the business group closed that meeting to the press at the request of the Inhofe campaign, but officials backed off that plan after media complaints.

Independent Stephen P. Wallace also has been invited to make a presentation before the group.

Last week, Rice accused his opponent, while shunning televised debates, of running a "negative stream of advertising" on television in an attempt to distort his record as a state senator.

"As a father of two young children and a husband, to insinuate that I don't care about protecting Oklahomans from violent criminals is offensive to me," Rice said. "I just feel Sen. Inhofe is hiding behind these ads, he's not campaigning, he won't come debate me, he's hiding there in Washington."

In one commercial, called "Six Strikes," Rice is accused of being "one of only four state Senators to vote against making criminals with six or more felony convictions serve at least 85 percent of their time."

The ad features ominous-looking mug shots of criminals as a narrator asks, "Murderers? Rapists? Thieves? On Oklahoma streets? So, what was Andrew Rice thinking?"

Rice said the ad is misleading because murderers, rapists and thieves already have to serve 85 percent of their time. The bill in question would have added a new category of offenders found guilty of six or more lesser felonies.

An earlier Inhofe ad contained anti-gay overtones, showing a wedding cake topped by two plastic grooms and a photo of Rice as a young man, curly haired and wearing a leather jacket.

Rice suggested Inhofe must be "spooked or something" and is not confident he will be re-elected.

But Kivett said the facts in the ad about Rice's record are "indisputable."

"The only distortion in this campaign would be if Rice tried to claim he shared most Oklahomans' values," he said.

Rice also has been critical of Inhofe in television spots, saying the Republican is an extreme partisan who has failed to come up with solutions to the country's pressing problems.

One recent ad shows a clip of Inhofe responding to criticism about the money he gets from oil and natural gas companies by saying it is not enough.

Inhofe has billed himself as a "stubborn" advocate for Oklahoma's interests.

Rice said the incumbent has a record of blocking legislation to promote alternative energy sources to ease dependence on foreign oil.

According to recent public opinion polls, Rice is trailing Inhofe by 16 to 22 percentage points. He also is being outspent more than 2-1.

     

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