July 28, 2010--Ivy, VA--Lise Clavel, campaign manager for the Perriello campaign, released the following statement:

"After reversing his position on debating all candidates, Sen. Hurt has said no to debates that include independent conservative candidate Jeff Clark, even though Mr. Clark has met the Virginia standard to qualify as a candidate. In these brutal economic times when the stakes are so high, Tom wants to give voters every chance to hear from all candidates, so he will commit to two televised debates that include all the candidates and two head-to-head debates with Sen. Hurt. While Tom believes voters should have the opportunity to hear every candidate on the ballot every time, this compromise seems like the only way Sen. Hurt will allow the process to move forward without being too scared to have a real debate that respects independents."

Background:

• WDBJ7 in Roanoke has already invited all three candidates to their debate, and the Perriello campaign has accepted.
• WSLS in Roanoke will invite the independent candidate if he meets a polling standard of 10%, as is consistent with their debate policy in past years. The Perriello campaign intends to accept this debate.
• The remaining two debate invitations are from WSET (Lynchburg) and NBC29 (Charlottesville) together. The Perriello campaign is proposing that one of these be among all three candidates and one of them be between Sen. Hurt and Mr. Perriello.