Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Congressman Mark Kirk meet Sunday for the first televised debate of the Senate election. But it’s not in Illinois.
Giannoulias and Kirk are appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning in Washington, DC. This is the first of three debates the two candidates have agreed to, and the only one that’s taking place outside of Chicago. Later this month they’ll debate on Chicago’s ABC-7, and public TV’s Chicago Tonight.
There was another expected debate, in Southern Illinois, in Carbondale, but that fell apart over the invitation list. Organizers wanted the Green Party’s LeAlan Jones to attend. But Giannoulias’ campaign says the candidate would only participate if it was just between him and Kirk or if it also included a fourth candidate, Libertarian Mike Labno.
For Sunday’s debate in Washington, neither Jones nor Labno were invited.