In his campaign for U.S. Senate, Case has asked Rep. Mazie Hirono to agree to 25 debates ahead of the August Democratic primary. Here’s an excerpt from an email Case sent to supporters on Thursday night: 

“We’ve suggested joint appearances across Hawai’i, but Mazie has agreed to none. We’ve accepted debate invitations from the media, but Mazie hasn’t. We are open to other possibilities, but it doesn’t appear that she is.”

Back in January, when Case first pitched the idea, the Hirono campaign responded that it would release ”proposed criteria for evaluating joint appearances.” A spokeswoman for the campaign told DC808 early Friday morning that she would provide a response to Case’s latest email. 

This isn’t the first time that Case has tried to make debates a sticking point on the campaign trail. One of Case’s strategies in 2006 — he was running for U.S. Senate that year, too — was to make an issue out of what he said was incumbent Sen. Daniel Akaka‘s unwillingness to debate him, according to the now defunct Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 

Eventually, Akaka agreed to a single debate with Case, the newspaper reported. 

Those who are tracking the fight for the GOP presidential nomination have probably noticed that the debates in that race — 20 since May — have long since started to blur to together. 

But in a Feb. 13 New Yorker column, Hendrik Hertzberg quotes former Federal Communications Chairman Newton Minow making this point: 

“The debates are the only time during presidential campaigns when the major candidates appear together side by side under conditions that they do not control.”

If it were up to you, how many debates would you like to see between Case and Hirono?