Debate Is Needed, Governor

Is the last chance fading for a direct confrontation in a debating forum between Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and his Democratic challenger, Treasurer Kathleen Brown?

The California Broadcasters Assn. and KGO-TV in San Francisco, which had hoped to sponsor an Oct. 16 meeting between the candidates, have found unacceptable the terms of debate demanded by the Wilson camp.

Any responsible sponsor would have been forced to the same conclusion, for what Wilson insisted on was nothing less than the right to choose the political reporters who would question the candidates. As if this transparent effort to make sure that Wilson was lobbed softballs wasn’t enough, his negotiators added another condition: exclusion of all questions from the public, on the grounds, as Wilson campaign spokesman Dan Schnur so felicitously put it, that they would be only “distractions.” Heaven forbid that politicians should be distracted from meeting the heavy responsibilities of public service by such extraneous matters as hearing what voters have on their minds.

Brown says she’s ready to take part in as many as five televised debates and that she won’t seek to set format conditions. As we have said before, there’s no reason a politically neutral organization, like the League of Women Voters, shouldn’t simply be asked by the two camps to set the rules for the encounter and to pick the questioners, with both candidates accepting the format in advance. Brown has repeatedly said she would. Wilson until now has chosen to set conditions that his opponent as well as any responsible sponsoring organization can only find unacceptable.

The public, it can’t be said too often, has the right to be as fully informed as possible about where those who seek public office stand. Canned speeches and 30-second commercials are no substitute for freewheeling debate. There’s still time for Wilson to agree to debate Brown under impartial rules. There’s still time for voters to hear honest give and take on issues that might deeply affect their lives.