Caldwell, Djou should debate

It is truly a sad state of city affairs when even a $8.6 billion rail dilemma and a visibly sprawling homeless problem aren’t enough to rile voters, collectively, to demand to hear solutions from the two men vying to be mayor.

Instead, we’ve become so apathetic that we’re OK with letting them slide from any televised debates between now and the Nov. 8 general election.

It is not OK.

There is value in voters seeing the two politicians — incumbent Kirk Caldwell and former Congressman Charles Djou — side by side, unfiltered and in real time, being pressed for answers, in a live broadcast debate.

Unfortunately, chances are dimming.

One important debate opportunity apparently closed when Djou either withdrew or declined to appear live on “Insights on PBS Hawaii” on Oct. 27, despite PBS thinking commitments were secured.

For the sake of voters, we urge reconsideration and for this event to take place.

Though both candidates’ positions on building rail to Ala Moana Center are now aligned after Djou dropped his opposition, voters deserve to hear directly from the two about specific actions ahead to bridge the $6.8 billion project’s estimated $1.8 billion shortfall.

They also need to be pressed on issues such as an aggressive affordable-housing strategy, promised for at least two years but still unset; visions for development and land use across Oahu; results-oriented homeless strategies; and ethics and transparency in government.

In the August primary election, a mere 1,530 votes separated the two — Caldwell at 74,062, Djou at 72,532 — with some 19,410 votes for other candidates that are now up for grabs, possibly more.

There should be no avoiding a live TV debate with a race so close and consequential, with so many large issues at stake.

The victor wins the privilege of leading our city of nearly 1 million people for the next four years, setting the course of policies affecting Oahuans’ pocketbooks.

Also sorely needed is a civic-minded TV station to step forward to present a live debate before the general election. Officials with Hawaii News Now and KITV, which both held mayoral forums before the primary, have no such plans. For them to say now that a debate isn’t needed shirks what should be a basic public responsibility during election season. There is time to reconsider.

Further, let’s hope that KHON, which still seems undecided on a mayoral forum, will step up to host, and that both candidates clear their calendars to debate.

As it stands, the last broadcast opportunity to hear directly from Djou and Caldwell, together, occurred last Saturday, when they appeared in a “tele-town hall” phone-in forum sponsored by AARP Hawaii.

Unfortunately, held on a Saturday morning for an hour, with registration requirements and hoops to access, it was a far cry from a prime-time televised debate, which this race deserves.

Granted, Caldwell and Djou are no Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, whose debate on Sept. 26 drew a record 84 million viewers nationwide. But as that presidential debate showed, voters receive a rare, truer sense of candidates when they appear together and are pressured, in real time, by a skilled moderator or panel. Handling answers to follow-up questions go well beyond prefabbed statements or static campaign websites.

As noted by University of Hawaii political science professor Colin Moore, some voters may only now be tuning in to the mayor’s race and general election.

“I tend to think that a couple of more opportunities would be helpful for people, particularly in a nonpartisan election,” he rightly noted.

Apathy is insidious. It infiltrates while other priorities prevail over informing choices, while we rely on the other guy to step up. It should not come to this.

In Hawaii’s struggle against voter apathy, turning away from robust debate only enables apathy to win.