Rouzer non-commital on debate request before primary

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The potential of redrawing district lines should not affect congressional races in our area but congressman David Rouzer is using it as one reason why he’s not yet agreed to debate his challenger.

More than a month ago we invited Congressman David Rouzer and his GOP primary challenger Mark Otto to debate in our studio. Otto quickly agreed but Rouzer’s campaign referred us to a political consultant in Pennsylvania, who has been non-committal.

We spoke with Rouzer Monday while he was in Wilmington about debating Otto. Otto has even said he will work with Rouzer’s schedule which Otto said is likely busier than his own. He also said ours is the only debate invitation he’s received so far.

Rouzer said the federal court ruling on North Carolina’s congressional districts and the potential for the U.S. Supreme Court to get involved has a lot of things up in the air.

“Well we’ve got to see if we are going to have an election, and obviously that’s tied up in the courts right now, and we don’t know if we are going to have a primary March 15 nor do we know what the districts are going to look like,” said Rouzer.

Republican leaders had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would allow next month’s primary to go on without redrawing the congressional districts. But the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative, over the weekend leaves an ideologically split court.

Rouzer said he has not decided if he will debate anyone.

Neither his campaign spokeswoman or his consultant handling debate requests has responded to our requests today for comment.