Two media outlets trying to book the two candidates running in a Feb. 7 special election for state Senate in Nassau are going to have to make due with just one.
Brian Lehrer’s show this morning will only feature Democrat Craig Johnson because Maureen O’Connell is too busy to participate, her campaign spokesman Mike Arens told me yesterday. That’s the same reason she’s also declined to participate in a joint televised appearance with Johnson at ABC this Friday. (A person working at ABC said they only reached out to both campaigns about that event yesterday.)
When I asked Arens whether there was any duck-y aspect to what O’Connell was doing, he denied it strongly.
“She and her opponent have been on two televised new debates and three different
newspaper editorial boards,” he said.
He said that it was simply a matter of the campaign choosing to focus on getting O’Connell to meet or make personal contact with as many voters as possible in the district. So instead of doing debates, he said, O’Connell will be meeting with “senior citizens groups, walking door to door, [and joining] volunteers doing a train station in the morning.”
— Azi Paybarah
