Press "Enter" to skip to content

With a debate all but dead, Stenger drops new ad

Saint Louis, Mo. — It’s looking more and more like voters in St. Louis County will not be lucky enough to see a debate between any of the candidates running for county executive in the August primary.

Stenger has been attempting to goad incumbent Charlie Dooley into debating for months, with Dooley countering that he would not debate until Stenger released more tax information.

Steve Stenger
Steve Stenger

The back-and-fourth went on for some time when, only weeks ago, Dooley announced his willingness to debate on either July 31 or August 1, only a few days ahead of the August 5 primary.

The Stenger campaign quickly shot back that a debate that close to the election was meaningless. Stenger challenged Dooley to participate in one of the many third party debates he’d agreed to. Despite agreeing — on principal at least — to appear in a debate hosted by St. Louis Public Radio, that now appears dead.

There is no scheduled debate between Republican candidates, Rep. Rick Stream and Tony Pousosa, meaning voters will go to the August 5 ballot without having seen either party’s candidates square off over the issues.

“The Stenger campaign has bent over backwards and made numerous concessions in order to debate the issues,” said Stenger spokesperson, Ed Rhode. “It has become clear to us that Mr. Dooley is not interested in allowing voters to evaluate this record. The voters deserve better”

With less than one month until the primary, Stenger has released yet another television ad, this one aimed at Dooley’s supposed mismanagement of the building of the new family court building in St. Louis county, which he says is $30 million over budget.

“This new family court building is costing $30 million more than Charlie Dooley said it would,” Stenger says in the ad. “And Charlie knew it all along. That kind of mismanagement means less for real priorities, like schools, public safety, and job creation.”

The Dooley camp was quick to counter that Stenger is misrepresenting the facts.

“If he had attended the Committee of the Whole meeting on May 8, 2012, with the rest of the County Council members, he would have understood that preliminary construction budgets indicated that more money was needed to build the courthouse,” Linda Goldstein, Director of Communications for the Dooley campaign, wrote in a statement. “Although he’s now critical of the increased construction budget, he voted in favor of the additional funds. Which is it, Steve…are you for it or against it? Once again, it’s hard to tell. This man will say anything, do anything, and stand for nothing.”

With the permanent back-and-fourth finger pointing and only 25 days until the primary, a debate appears almost impossible.