Kimsey Bails On CCRW Debate
09/06/2022 VANCOUVER, WA
This Friday night, hundreds of Clark County voters were excited to finally see a real debate between myself and 24 year incumbent auditor Greg Kimsey. Is there any way more American, than to put two candidates in a room and ask them questions that are relevant and important to the hundreds of people gathered for the event?
This debate, presented by the Clark County Republican Women’s organization, was scheduled and agreed upon by both campaigns more than a month ago. The questions were not provided to us, although the general topics of discussion were. The CCRW had just sponsored a quality debate between the Clark County sheriff candidates last month, and we were looking forward to our opportunity to debate Kimsey and more importantly, allow the public to decide for themselves.
That's what a debate is. It’s not for me or for my campaign. It’s not for Kimsey or his campaign. And it’s not for the CCRW.
It’s for the citizens of Clark County. Period.
It gives each member of the electorate the chance to compare the candidates one-on-one. It allows the public to contemplate who is best suited to lead our Auditor’s office. It is the truest and best form of the democratic process, and it has been a stalwart of elections since the beginning. Unlike the League of Women Voters, or the Columbian Editorial Board which somehow seem to have chosen their winner before the contest even takes place, or float softball questions to protect incumbents from real public scrutiny by failing to ask any questions about election integrity- the CCRW had clearly identified Election Integrity as the most important topic to citizens of Clark County. That’s what people are interested in, so that’s what the topics shared with both campaign teams revolved around.
More than a month ago, Greg Kimsey agreed to those terms and pretended like he supported them too. But over the weekend, Auditor Kimsey had a sudden change of heart, and cancelled his participation in Friday night’s CCRW debate. He’s decided to prevent the electorate from being able to hear his answers to their questions. He’s decided to once again, duck and hide- and encourage his sycophant supporters to claim that he’s taken some high road. But all he’s really done is again, refuse to be questioned by the voters who elected him..
Because Greg Kimsey doesn’t want to answer your questions about election integrity. Just like he refuses to actually audit a single election in his 24 years as auditor. Not once. Not when thousands of citizens have demanded it and agreed to pay for it. Not when all he would have to do is let Clark County complete a single forensic audit. If we found nothing out of the ordinary, wouldn’t it be the immediate end to my campaign? A mic drop ending to all the questions, to all the suspicions, and to all that might compete in an election against him.
A clean result to a full forensic audit would cement Greg Kimsey’s position as our County Auditor for the rest of his life.
But no. He refuses. And now he refuses to even be questioned about his election integrity by the very voters he supposedly represents. Why is that?
Why is Greg Kimsey so afraid of a forensic audit? Why is a 24 year incumbent County Auditor afraid of a debate with a political newcomer? Why did Greg Kimsey originally agree to this debate, complete with the topics provided to him more than a month ago, but now suddenly decides to bail out.
We can only guess.
Maybe we’ll ask him at next month’s Columbian Editorial Board “debate” run by the fair and balanced Craig Jaynes and Scott Campbell. Even though we know they’ve already decided who their guy is, and the questions will be slanted to his advantage- we’ll still show up. Not for The Columbian or for the betterment of our campaign- but for the electorate. The voters deserve to hear from us no matter what the underlying partisanship of the promoter may be.
It’s the same for the League of Women Voters. We’ll be there, to “debate” the same softball questions the nice ladies ask each and every year- never daring to get into the real weeds about anything remotely controversial, like whether our votes are being counted correctly by a corrupted County Auditor.
That’s why nobody really cares about those “debates”. Everybody already knows the milktoast questions followed by the already determined results.
So what is it, Mr. Kimsey? What are you afraid of? What are you hiding from us? Why can’t we see for ourselves?
