GOP Candidates for Seymour’s Seat Agree to Televised Debate on May 17

The three Republican candidates for the two-year Senate seat held by GOP Sen. John Seymour have agreed to participate in a half-hour television debate in San Diego on May 17, according to debate organizer Peter Kaye.

Attempts are being made to air three other debates on Sunday evenings in May involving the Democratic candidates for the Seymour seat and the Republican and Democratic contenders for the six-year seat held by Democrat Alan Cranston, Kaye said.

Kaye, a free-lance producer for KPBS, the public broadcasting network affiliate in San Diego, is associate editor for political coverage of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The tentative schedule for the other debates is: May 3, Republican candidates for the seat held by Cranston, who is retiring; May 10, Democrats running for the Cranston seat, and May 24, Democratic candidates for the two-year seat. May 31 is being reserved as a backup date if conflicts make it impossible to hold one of the sessions on the dates planned.

Kaye said Seymour, Rep. William E. Dannemeyer and Claremont college professor Bill Allen have agreed to tape their segment on May 17 at 7 p.m. The San Diego station plans to air the program at 10 p.m. It will be made available to other PBS stations in California for live broadcast at 7 p.m. or later tape relay.

Kaye said he is continuing efforts to commit candidates in the other three campaigns to the debates. At some point, he said, “we may decide to hold them whether everybody shows up or not.”