MARK MAYFIELD: Kay Ivey’s Roy Moore strategy

Here’s a good rule to follow in every major political campaign — but most especially in Alabama’s upcoming gubernatorial election: Don’t vote for candidates who refuse to debate their opponents.

I’m guessing, and I hope I’m proven wrong, that Gov. Kay Ivey has no intention of debating Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox between now and the Nov. 6 gubernatorial election. Maddox, by contrast, has made it clear that he wants to debate Ivey on key issues facing this state.

Keep in mind we’re talking here about one of the most accomplished mayors in America asking for a debate with a governor who got the job not by the vote of the people, but by default when the previous governor was forced to resign in disgrace. Ivey has no mandate from the electorate. Not yet, anyway.

Like Roy Moore in his U.S. Senate campaign against Doug Jones last year, it seems obvious that Ivey intends to sidestep a debate and, instead, try to run out the clock, hoping the word “Republican” by her name on the ballot will be all she needs to win in a red state. Only, that strategy didn’t exactly work out for Moore. We know what happened. He lost to Jones, a far better candidate and a better person, and one who was more than willing to debate, while Moore refused.

As for Ivey, she took a pass on debates and candidate forums during the GOP primary campaign this year, a strategy that may have worked for her, but most certainly didn’t work for the people of Alabama — who have a right to know if their governor can honestly answer the tough questions that come during a debate.

Her campaign spokeswoman, Debbee Hancock, said in June that there is still plenty of time to make a decision about debates. (I emailed and left a voicemail for Hancock on Friday to see if there has been any further discussion between Ivey and her campaign staff about this, but so far, no reply.)

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