For the original post see below: 

UPDATE: 3:20 p.m. Now that his opponents will not be there, Jeff Harris sent out a half-joking release titled “Harris camp claims victory in first debate.” He then gives the statement:

All joking aside, the unfortunate losers in this are the Young Democrats and other students at Truman State who worked hard to put this event together, and I am truly disappointed for them. They demonstrated a commitment to democracy and public service that we, as candidates for public office, should honor.

Senator Koster and Representative Donnelly’s decision to skip this debate is an example of why we have often seen a generation gap within the Democratic Party in historically in voting.

UPDATE: 1:51 p.m. Rebecca Kirszner, from Koster’s campaign says Koster never agreed to attend the Trumate State debate, because of a prior engagement. That contradicts Lang who said the campaign went from hot — and confirmed — to luke warm to cold over time.

UPDATE: 12:41 p.m. Daniel Nava, manager/spokesman for Donnelly’s campaign, said that the campaign had two previously scheduled events elsewhere in the state that day. Aparently they were planned prior to the debate, but there was confusion as to whether they were actually happening. 

ORIGINAL POST:

The plug has been pulled on Thursday’s debate between Democratic AG candidates at Truman State in Kirksville.

James Lang, president of the college Democrat organization there — which was hosting the debate — said two of the candidates backed out due to last minute schedule changes.

Originally, Margaret Donnelly, Jeff Harris and Chris Koster had been scheduled to attend, but Donnelly and Koster both dropped, Lang said. Donnelly did offer to try to participate via a remote video feed, Lang added.

“But you would only have one candidate present, one gone and one sort of there via satellite, I guess,” Lang said. “That’s not exactly a debate.”

Lang said the prospects for pulling together another debate at the college in northeast Missouri seem pretty dim, what with the spring semester drawing to a close and all. (And with the primary in August, Lang said he didn’t see much of a point to having a debate over the summer without the students around to watch.)

I should also note that there are two other debates on the horizon:

• May 22, on the UMKC campus, sponsored by the Jackson County Committee for County Progress.
• May 30 in Lake Ozark, sponsored by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, at its annual Bench, Bar and Professional Development Conference.