Stratton can dance and hyperventilate about President Trump, but she can't seem to debate Don Tracy
Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Juliana Stratton is hiding in her basement and refusing to debate Republican nominee Don Tracy as the pair vie to replace outgoing Senator Dick Durbin this year.
Stratton, the sitting Democrat Lt. Governor of Illinois under failed Governor JB Pritzker, did participate in several debates during the Democrat primary when she knew she would not face any tough questions. She knew that primary debates would cater only to left-wing issues and that no one would really try to tie her to the anchor of being the second chair for one of the worst governors in the country.
In her Democrat primary this year, she fairly easily beat two opponents who are also sitting members of Congress — Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly — though one can easily imagine that if Kelly had bowed out of the primary, Krishnamoorthi just might have over taken Stratton in the final voting.
Still, it may not be all that surprising that she beat her opponents since Governor Pritzker put his considerably weighty thumb on the scale by giving her his full endorsement, despite that as a sitting governor he should have taken no real role in electing a U.S. senator.
Stratton ran a "progressive" campaign and her biggest issue was raising the minimum wage to $25. She also ran on the financially absurd "Medicare for all" scheme of which the left is so fond, and pandered to the left-wing base with her pledge to "eliminate" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), despite the fact a U.S. senator would have no real power to achieve such a goal.
However, now that she has safely secured the nomination, Stratton is taking the easy road to the election by refusing to debate her Republican opponent.
For his part, Tracy has offered to join Stratton in several debates, but she has steadfastly ignored all his offers.
Indeed, one debate date even turned into an interview between Tracy and WBBM-TV's Chris Tye, the station's Sunday night anchor, because Stratton once again refused to show up.
"I asked Juliana Stratton for three debates across Illinois," Tracy said in a Facebook post in September. "I’m still waiting. She’s still hiding. It’s time to put your record on the table, Lt. Governor."
In comments exclusively to Chicago Contrarian, Tracy expanded on that criticism.
"Illinois voters deserve the chance to hear from both of the candidates. Side by side, on the record. Don has said yes. She has declined 8 different debates and forums. She is the nominee of a party in the middle of a bitter fight over its own identity, and has shown deep alignment with her party’s most extreme ideologies. Voters not only deserve to know where she stands next to Don Tracy. They deserve to know where she sits on the spectrum her party is arguing over: from establishment Democrat to Democrat Socialist. An open Senate seat is too important to hide from."
It is pretty obvious why Stratton is refusing to debate, of course. She is an unremarkable candidate with no real political talent. She is clearly relying on the state's left-wing electorate to protect her from any criticism. And she certainly knows that the compliant media won't ding her for refusing to meet her opponent in a frank and honest debate.
Meanwhile, she expects to skate through the elections without ever once being tasked with answering any hard questions.
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