Boback surely can find time to debate opponent

RARELY WILL YOU encounter a politician who is at a loss for words.

Yet state Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, has kept strangely quiet rather than debate her Republican challenger James May, of Northmoreland Township, prior to the April primary.

Boback recently declined an invitation from the impartial League of Women Voters, which had proposed three dates for a debate. Her reason: Those dates – April 7, 8 and 9 – conflict with the General Assembly’s legislative session.

The league’s officials in Wilkes-Barre should have taken that into account before trying to schedule a showdown. Even so, it’s hard to imagine that Boback – a freshman legislator – couldn’t pull herself away early on one of those days to make the trip home from Harrisburg for an evening debate.

Somehow, U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama manage to crisscross the nation to campaign and discuss issues, yet the federal government continues to function in their absence.

Moreover, couldn’t Boback and May mutually agree on another date – maybe even on a weekend?

Area residents deserve an opportunity to hear the candidates air their ideas, defend their viewpoints and perhaps poke holes in the opposition’s arguments.

Voters aren’t expecting any Lincoln-Douglas-type oratory from the contenders for the state’s 117th Legislative District. (The 117th district includes portions of Luzerne, Wyoming and Columbia counties.) But they’re accustomed in a democracy to hearing a fairly civil, pre-election day exchange of opinions and counter-opinions.

Certainly Boback, a former school teacher and professor, should be confident enough in her speaking abilities to handle some unscripted discussion.

U.S. House race

Chris Hackett and Dan Meuser, Republican contenders for the 10th Congressional District seat, are scheduled to debate at 7 tonight in the Tunkhannock Area Middle School, 200 Franklin Ave.,

Clear 29°

Editorials

U.S. House race

Place Quick Ads