The debate that wasn’t

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You can’t entirely blame state Sen. Co-majority Leader Jeff Klein for refusing to debate before an audience of community members in Riverdale. It must be maddening to be one of the most powerful lawmakers in New York State, yet have many of your moves nearly dictated by a rival whom some had expected to enter a quiet retirement.

Mr. Klein has already switched party alliances, taken a strong stance against Montefiore Medical Center’s plans and brought millions of dollars to the district — all of it at least in part because he doesn’t want to let challenger Oliver Koppell make him look bad. To think a newspaper would have the gall to invite him to a debate! That is just too much for Mr. Klein to stand.

Still, we would not be doing our duty to the community unless we invited him to a session with Mr. Koppell at an easy-to-reach site like the Riverdale Temple, The Y or any of the venues used by the community board for its meetings. 

We were willing to co-host the debate with The Riverdale Review, which doesn’t hide its pro-Klein views, or other Bronx newspapers.

For a few weeks, Mr. Klein’s camp strung us along. We were momentarily convinced that as powerful a politician as he had enough respect for Riverdale voters and the democratic process to defend his extensive record on matters from Montefiore Medical Center’s plans here — which many residents fear will be realized in spite of legislation co-authored by the senator — to the stalled Women’s Equality Agenda and Child Victim’s Act.

As the window of opportunity for a debate rapidly closed, we finally wheedled an answer out of Mr. Klein. 

His campaign’s excuse for dodging the debate is no surprise — proud as he can be of many of his legislative accomplishments, the senator is incorrigibly heavy-handed with journalists — and this time around, he claimed we have “irresponsibly covered this race.” 

Mr. Klein’s refusal to debate in front of a community where he has ceaselessly sought to score points over the past eight months is a shame on the senator. 

But the real loser is Riverdale. Residents will not get to hear Mr. Klein and Mr. Koppell debate at length about housing for the mentally ill at 6469 Broadway; they won’t see the candidates face off over Montefiore Medical Center’s proposed facility; and they won’t learn what the two really think about the Hebrew Home for the Aged’s plans to expand, among other heated, hyperlocal issues. 

It would also have been beneficial to see Mr. Koppell, who has cast himself as the squeaky-clean reformer in the race, further defend himself from Mr. Klein’s allegation that the former councilman had a conflict of interest when it came to rezoning the proposed site of Montefiore’s new facility years ago, or that he betrayed his constituents by sponsoring legislation to rescind term limits and grant Michael Bloomberg another four years as mayor.

Gary Axelbank, host of “BronxTalk,” did an excellent job as moderator of a televised debate that’s available online at www.bronxnet.org. But, as we feared, few of the issues discussed were relevant to our specific corner of the borough.

The Press will print and post issue-by-issue statements from the primary candidates in each local race in next week’s newspaper, and each senate candidate has his own website touting his positions. Mr. Koppell’s is www.koppell4ny.com and Mr. Klein’s is www.jeffkleinny.com. 

We urge every local Democrat to research the candidates, although high voter turnout is not expected at the Tuesday, Sept. 9 primary. Unfortunately, by refusing to debate in front of Riverdalians, Mr. Klein has shown when it comes to participatory democracy, he does it on his own terms.

Jeff Klein, debate, Oliver Koppell

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