CAMPAIGN ’88 : Debate Plans Go Awry

Republican nominee-apparent George Bush has refused to commit himself to a series of fall debates, throwing a monkey wrench into the plans of a bipartisan debate commission and thrusting Republican Party chief Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. into the center of an embarrassing controversy.

Fahrenkopf--who co-chairs the 10-member Commission on Presidential Debates with his Democratic counterpart, Paul G. Kirk Jr.--said he has known the vice president’s views since last summer and insisted in an interview that he had always made clear that no GOP candidate had committed to debating under commission sponsorship.

“I told them all along what Bush’s position was,” Fahrenkopf said.

But Richard Moe, the group’s Democratic vice chairman, said Fahrenkopf led him and others to believe Bush had agreed to participate in commission-sponsored debates, if debates were held. On that assumption, they went about recruiting corporate contributors, selecting sites and setting dates for three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate between the nominees of both parties.