Anchorage Daily News

The Begich and Stevens campaigns have been at war the last couple of days over a debate challenge issued by the Begich camp. Begich said Stevens was refusing to agree to a face-off before the election. The Stevens camp said that's not true and accused Begich of lying.

At about 10 a.m. Wednesday, the Begich campaign sent this announcement accusing Stevens of backing out of debates, saying "Stevens is now refusing to participate in live candidate forums."

It quotes Begich saying he'll debate Stevens any time, any day.

Early Wednesday afternoon, an e-mail to Stevens' campaign spokesman Aaron Saunders asked for a reaction. Saunders said the Begich camp was wrong -- that Stevens had already agreed to an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce forum and a public broadcasting debate in October.

"(Begich's) campaign is clearly feeling desperate and will apparently resort to flat out lies to stay relevant," Saunders wrote.

So what did the Begich campaign have to say?

Begich spokeswoman Julie Hasquet replied in an e-mail: "Every debate organizer has told us that Stevens won't be participating, is getting a taped message or they were still waiting for an answer," she wrote.

Nobody was lying and it's too bad "voters will have to wait until one week before the election to hear Sen. Stevens and Mark Begich debate live," she wrote.

Wednesday night, KTUU aired a story about the debate flap. It quotes Begich saying Stevens only agreed to debates that day, after their press release.

"That's probably because we sent a press release out saying they haven't been accountable," Begich told the station. He said his campaign had been checking on the debates "every single day, it seems."

But two debate organizers said Stevens confirmed he'd participate about two weeks ago, according to KTUU.

That prompted another press release, this one from Saunders, demanding an apology from Begich.

The Hill, a Washington, D.C., newspaper, wrote a story too. That led the Stevens' camp to renew its demand for an apology Thursday morning and accuse Begich of "spinning a web of misinformation."

"Stevens agreed to participate in the public broadcasting debate a couple of weeks ago, said KTOO News Director Rosemarie Alexander. She said she was surprised to see the Begich release and has not talked to the Begich campaign for several weeks," The Hill wrote.

"This is just so clearly a political stunt gone wrong ... it's so contrary to what the facts are," Saunders said Thursday.

Hasquet said no one's going to apologize and that the two events Stevens will attend are not enough. "At the most extreme, it was a communication breakdown between debate organizers and our campaign," she said.

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