Jon Ralston laments the ignorance of 30,000 early voters, who won’t have the benefit of candidate debates

Friday, Aug. 4, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

As the gubernatorial candidates prepare to debate tonight, and about 30,000 Clark County voters (so far) have elected to be willfully ignorant, the issue of candidates hiding has never been more salient.

Even though the conventional wisdom, reinforced by recent polling, indicates that the general election will feature a matchup between Dina Titus and Jim Gibbons, there's enough uncertainty to potentially render tonight's confrontations meaningful (tune in to KLVX Channel 10 from 7:30 to 9:30).

Those who have voted in the governor's race this week at the mall or the grocery store will not have the benefit of seeing these candidates engage, some for the first time. It should be embarrassing for the Ignorant 30,000, who have no excuse.

And there are no legitimate, substantive reasons, either, for skipping debates. The only candidate on the ballot with a real excuse is the late Kathy Augustine - and in a true measure of voter ignorance or protest, the controller, who died last month, will get plenty of votes.

But others are simply cowards and they think they can get away with it. I understand campaign strategy. If you are ahead, why take the chance? And I see why campaign managers, paid for their counsel, would advise their people not to debate if they are worried about a lead or know their clients have performance issues. (There is no known Viagra for debate dysfunction.)

But there is a larger concern here, and that is the voters getting their information only from 30-second (or 15-second) ads and not having a chance to see the candidates engage each other. It never ceases to amaze me - the collective tuning out, as epitomized by the Ignorant 30,000.

So permit a pundit's biennial whine - here is a list of this year's biggest offenders, the ones afraid to face their opponents:

(For the record, Democrats Dina Titus and Jim Gibson appeared on "Face to Face" three times for hourlong debates and tonight will be their fourth televised encounter. Kudos.)

I hold out little hope that I can stop anyone from voting early. But, perhaps, even if voters insist on being benighted, we can at least try to make them informed and lazy instead of ignorant and slothful by shaming these and other candidates into debating after the primary.