Betsy Re-Ducks

The Politicker took some heat a couple of weeks ago for suggesting that Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum was ducking a televised debate moderated by WCBS's Andrew Kirtzman. We were not, it turns out, wrong. Now another station, WABC, has sent this email to the other candidates about its own debate, set to air August 21: "The participants will be [Andrew] Rasiej, Norman Siegel and Jay Golub.... Betsy Gotbaum has declined our invitation and will only do the two required of her by the Campaign Finance Board." Gotbaum consultant Hank Sheinkopf tells us only that she's complying with the law. "Why would anybody want to be on a stage with Norman Siegel, whose whole style of campaigning is to scream and yell and be negative?" he asked.