Chances are waning that Anthony T. Constantino and Blake Gendebien, the two men vying to be the next Congressmen from New York’s 21st District, will face off in a television debate this year.
For more than a month the candidates have been weighing invitations from a handful of news organizations mostly focused in the Capitol Region and Mohawk Valley. Initially the two had agreed to a debate hosted by News Channel 13, WNYT in Albany on Oct. 8. But after WNYT published the results of a poll they’d commissioned that showed Gendebien, the Democrat, was leading the race, Constantino backed out and demanded the news station refund money that had been fundraised by Gendebien after the poll was shared.
Three other debates had been offered by the Schenectady Daily Gazette newspaper, cable-based Spectrum News and CBS 6, another Albany-area broadcaster.
But on Wednesday, news started to break that Gendebien had declined the Gazette and CBS 6 debates. Constantino has agreed to the CBS 6 and Spectrum invitations.
When asked Wednesday morning, Gendebien’s campaign press spokesperson said the campaign was still weighing invitations. But after Constantino put out a statement calling Gendebein out for rejecting the debate invites, their message changed; less than three hours after confirming they were still reviewing invitations, they were rejecting two of them, arguing the candidate was unable to make it because of schedule issues.
“Blake has a farm to run and a campaign to run, and unlike Anthony, he doesn’t have a personal fortune to write himself checks,” said Michael Waller, campaign manager for Gendebien. “His schedule is packed, and he isn’t free on the dates CBS 6 and the Gazette have offered.”
He did not say what the campaign has decided for the Spectrum debate, leaving that as the last potential meeting for the candidates.
Waller raised concerns over how the Gazette debate would be formatted and if another news organization would be participating in their forum, and he called Constantino out for canceling the only agreed-upon debate with Channel 13.
“He told Channel 13 there would be no debate at all until the station refunded donations over a poll he didn’t like, then called its general manager a coward for good measure,” Waller said. “Now, five weeks out, with this race getting closer and more voters learning who Anthony really is, he says on social media that he wants a debate, with no word on whether that still includes his demands for an arena. Blake’s calendar didn’t sit empty waiting for Anthony to get serious.“
Constantino, for his part, said that Gendebien suggesting his calendar had filled was a sign he wasn’t capable of representing the district in Congress.
“If Blake’s excuse for not debating is that he has a farm to run, then he’s admitting he can’t represent us in Congress,” he said. “A debate only takes an hour and, by now, Blake should have made arrangements to be free. I also have a large business and have already handed management off to my team so that I can fight for the people.”
It’s not clear how seriously either candidate prepared to debate this year. A source close to Dylan Hewitt, the former progressive candidate who sought to oppose Gendebein in the Democratic primary earlier this year, said that Hewitt had offered to play Constantino in debate prep, but the invitation was never acknowledged.
Constantino has changed his position on debates a few times over his campaign; he originally declined to debate Assemblyman Robert J. Smullen, the man he beat for the Republican nomination, before then agreeing to debate him on CBS 6. Constantino then publicly criticized that station for how they covered the story of Smullen snubbing Constantino’s offer of a handshake at the end of that forum.