The Debate is On!

10/5/2012 (Updated 7:01:39 PM)

There will be a debate between County Executive Debbie Preston and her Democratic challenger Tarik Abdelazim.

The face-to-face will be on October 25th at 7pm at Broome Community College and will be sponsored by the League of Women voters.

Abdelazim has been pushing the Preston campaign to agree to an open debate.

Preston's campaign says scheduling has prevented it from agreeing to a date until Friday.

"I really think it had to do with Tarik Abdelazim making a mountain out of a molehill. We never denied all requests for debates. We were working on the schedule. That's what I said over and over again. And finally today we were able to come up with a schedule that worked with the League of Women Voters," said Preston Campaign Manager Bijoy Datta.

"Most Broome County Executives in the past had always agreed to three debates. We have Congressional reps right now looking at a series of six debates. So the fact that we had to fight and scrap and really encourage citizens to speak out in their frustration just to get one, again better than none but still disappointing," said Abdelazim.

Datta says he believes the League of Women voters will agree to video recording of the debate.

Abdelazim says all parties will meet next week to sort out the debate details.

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