A proposed October 8 gubernatorial forum at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will not happen, organizers said Tuesday. This is the second planned Tiffany-Crowley debate to fall through in a week.
The event at UWM’s Zelazo Center was to be sponsored by TMJ4, UWM and the Milwaukee County Intergovernmental Cooperation Council. TMJ4 reported the debate “will no longer take place.” FOX6’s Jason Calvi called it another cancellation after last week’s Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation debate was canceled.
WMTV Capitol bureau chief Vanessa Kjeldsen posted the line that circulated with the news: “We are deeply disappointed that scheduling did not work out to make this happen,” attributed to Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy. Kennedy is not a neutral non-partisan mayor. He chairs the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council. He is also national president of Democratic Municipal Officials, a Democratic Party group, and holds seats on the Democratic National Committee and its executive committee. He served three terms as president of AFT-Wisconsin, the statewide teachers’ union. In a December 2024 statement taking the DMO post, Kennedy said local Democrats would be “the Blue Wall that provides guardrails on a runaway Trump administration.”
Neither campaign issued a public statement about the recently canceled debate. Republican nominee Rep. Tom Tiffany has said one debate is enough. Both campaigns have accepted WISN 12’s October 21 debate at Marquette University Law School, moderated by Matt Smith and Gerron Jordan.
The WBA Foundation canceled its October 9 statewide televised debate on September 8, the first miss in a 36-year run, after saying both invitations had to be accepted and “that did not happen.” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s campaign told Kjeldsen that Crowley had planned to attend the WBA event and still expected the October 21 WISN date. Tiffany’s campaign did not publicly accept the WBA invite.
The general election is Nov. 3. The only locked debate remains October 21 on WISN.
