Rosemary Mulligan, who for the second time in two years is challenging Rep. Penny Pullen (R-Park Ridge) in the GOP primary in the 55th Illinois House District, has been trying to get the seven-term incumbent to debate her since 1990.
And for the first time in two years, it looked as though the two might actually face off in a debate before the March 17 vote.
But both candidates said Wednesday that such an encounter now appears unlikely, even though the League of Women Voters of Park Ridge has a candidates debate scheduled for March 7.
Pullen, who was challenged by Mulligan last January to join in a league-sponsored debate, said she did not plan to attend the March 7 event because Mulligan did not attend a debate held Tuesday by the Park Ridge Kiwanis Club. ”I had told Ms. Mulligan I would attend the league event if she met me and debated at the Kiwanis Club, and she found something else to do that day,” Pullen said.
”She declined my invitation to debate, despite her trying to tell everyone the last two years she wanted to debate me,” Pullen said. ”But as soon as I said yes, she said no, so that`s it. At this point I don`t have any intention of attending the league event.”
Mulligan, a Des Plaines paralegal, countered that she was more than willing to debate Pullen before the Kiwanis, but only if the debate could be rescheduled because she had other commitments.
As an alternative to rescheduling the event, Mulligan suggested the Kiwanis Club join the league-sponsored forum, which also is being hosted by the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce.
”I had two scheduling conflicts I could not rearrange,” said Mulligan, who received the Kiwanis invitation on Feb. 8.
When Pullen was informed by Mulligan in writing that she had a scheduling conflict, Pullen issued a written response claiming that Mulligan was dodging such an event because she would be unable to defend her campaign literature attacking Pullen`s voting record.
”Obviously, you do not want to be confronted with those deliberate distortions of my voting record,” Pullen wrote to Mulligan in a Feb. 17 letter. ”Therefore, you won`t debate.”
Mulligan denied dodging Pullen.
”If she was sincerely interested in debating, she could have asked Kiwanis to change the date,” Mulligan said.
Meanwhile, Des Plaines businessman Michael J. O`Malley, the third candidate in the GOP primary, attended Tuesday`s Kiwanis event and said he planned to be present at the league`s debate.
