CAMPAIGN ’88 : Campaign Chiefs Fail to End Debate Impasse

The campaign chairmen for Republican presidential nominee George Bush and Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis canceled a meeting Thursday and instead conferred by telephone on the issue of campaign debates. But the talk between James A. Baker III, Bush’s chairman, and Paul P. Brountas, the Dukakis chairman, failed to break an impasse they had reached at their first meeting on Tuesday.

Baker said Bush still wants only two televised debates, the first no earlier than Sept. 25 and the second before Oct. 17. Brountas said Dukakis favors no fewer than four debates, with the first one sooner and the last one closer to Election Day.

The two sides will talk again by phone on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the League of Women Voters, which hopes to sponsor some debates, called on both sides to resolve their dispute “in the best interests of both campaigns.”