Great Debate or Friday Night Lights? (OPINION)

Two of the four men seeking to become Arkansas’ next governor have agreed to participate in a statewide televised debate.

Democrat gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross, the former Fourth District Congressman from Prescott, and his Republican rival Asa Hutchinson, a former Third District Congressman from Bentonville, will debate ideas (hopefully) in a Little Rock television studio on Sept. 19.

Green Party candidate Josh Drake and Libertarian candidate Frank Gilbert were not included.

In Northwest Arkansas, the debate will be aired live on local NBC affiliate KNWA-TV starting at 7 p.m. If the event is anything like the candidate forum the two men participated in earlier this year in Springdale, they’d best be on their toes.

At a forum sponsored by the Arkansas Farm Bureau, moderator Larry Henry, managing editor of local CBS affiliate KFSM-TV, Channel 5, asked both candidates if they were members of the AFB.

Hutchinson had no idea if he was, or even how to become one.

The AFB is the state’s largest agricultural organization. Agriculture, by the way, is the state’s largest industry.

The forum wasn’t televised, but a video clip of Hutchinson’s fumbling response was picked up by the media, and has been exploited vigorously by the Ross campaign, underscoring its claim that candidate Hutchinson is out of touch with issues important to the state.

In the absence of a statewide television audience, the Farm Bureau flub didn’t cause too much tangible damage for Hutchinson, who is 0-for-3 in statewide campaigns, having been unsuccessful for the U.S. Senate (1986), attorney general (1990) and governor (2006).

That won’t be the case in Little Rock on Sept. 19. For one hour, voters will get a break from the scripted sound bites and toxic political ads to judge how the two candidates think on their feet and respond under pressure.

Although it’s reasonable to wonder how many voters will take notice of their televisions on a football Friday night in Arkansas.