TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — AZTV7 aired an interview with gubernatorial Republican candidate Kari Lake Sunday night. This interview takes the place of a governor’s debate after her opponent Katie Hobbs repeatedly turned down a debate with Lake.
If a candidate refuses to debate, the Clean Elections Commission offers their opponent a 30 minute interview.
Lake was supposed to have an interview on Arizona PBS, but they cancelled on her. Instead, they held a separate interview with Hobbs.
They were supposed to get that interview approved by the Clean Elections Commission, but didn’t.
Lake told Hobbs over and over through a series of tweets that she was welcome to come join her at the interview Sunday but Hobbs did not go.
“She’s only interested in a spotlight…this debate about debates is over,” Hobbs said during her interview with Arizona PBS when speaking about why she refused to debate Lake.
During her 30 minutes, Lake said she supports allocating money to the Empowerment Scholarship Acount, also known as ESA, which gives funding to students for home schooling, private school tuition or tutoring.
Hobbs said she would not have signed the current expanded voucher bill.
“This voucher system that we are under now doesn’t provide real choice in educational opportunity for most families,” Hobbs said.
Lake said she supports dual track education programs.
“After tenth grade, you decide if you want to go off and take that four year college degree path, which is great, go for it. Or if you want to get trade school training, vocational training and career certification in high school, we want our kids ready for that,” Lake said during her interview on AZTV7.
However, both candidates are willing to give teachers a pay raise.
“We need to invest more dollars into the classroom to keep teachers,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs said inflation in Arizona is being fueled by housing prices.
“In terms of housing, we need to build more. We’re not meeting the demand and so prices are continuing to stay high,” she said.
Meanwhile, Lake addressed skyrocketing prices for rent.
“We’re going to return rental tax. People can’t afford their rent right now. They’re paying additional money on tax on rent,” Lake said.
Regarding inflation on products, Hobbs supports a tax break on items like over the counter medication and diapers. Lake said she wants to get rid of the tax on food.
“Not every city has it but this is an essential. We have to eat, we have to feed our families,” Lake said.
When asked about abortion during Arizona PBS’ interview, Hobbs, who supports abortion rights, did not give a direct answer as to whether she would support a week or term limit.
“There is no one size fits all limit that is going to address really extreme circumstances,” Hobbs said.
Lake said she is pro-life and supports a law that saves as many babies as possible.
“When you walk into a Planned Parenthood, they give you one option and that is to take the life of the baby. They don’t say, is there anything we can do to help you keep this baby?” she said.
When asked about the election results, Lake said she is open to a hand count even if she does win.