Challenger: Ashton refuses to debate

Organizers reach out to both campaigns, yet no event

A Democratic challenger in the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s race is accusing oneterm incumbent Jeff Ashton of refusing to debate her before next month’s primary.

Aramis Ayala, who used to work under Ashton, said the president of The Orange County Bar Association Foundation and a community organizer reached out to both campaigns about the possibility of hosting the event.

The organizers are supporting Ayala, but they pledged a fair conversation.

Ayala urged her supporters to take their frustrations to social media and post a status challenging Ashton to a debate.

“While our campaign builds momentum, our opponent REFUSES to debate me,” Ayala wrote in the post. “They are afraid, and it’s preventing voters from knowing OUR choices ... ”

Eric Foglesong, Ashton’s campaign manager, said his team is not opposed to having a debate as long as it’s “hosted and organized by a neutral party.”

“From our standpoint, debates should be about what the voters want, not the candidates,” Foglesong said Monday. “It’s obvious that our opponent lacks the community support and platform to inform voters that there’s an issue with the office.”

The opposing camps have not been in direct contact with each other to schedule a debate, according to both parties.

In the months leading up to the 2012 election, Ashton participated in two debates — one hosted by the Tiger Bay Club and another by the League of Women Voters. Then, he was the famed Casey Anthony prosecutor taking on his boss and State Attorney of two decades, Lawson Lamar. It’s unclear if either group will offer to facilitate a similar event this year.

Attorney Camara Williams, president of The Orange County Bar Association Foundation, said he made an attempt to reach out to both campaigns to do that. He said he planned to present the idea to his board — which is made up of a prosecutor, judges and attorneys — but never got that far because one candidate was not avail-

able.

He would not elaborate, saying he didn’t want his non-partisan board embroiled in a political controversy.

Williams is a public supporter of Ayala, but said the education based organization that he leads does not take sides in elections.

He said he would have recused himself had the plans materialized.

“I just thought there was a lot of conversation about the debate, and I always look for opportunities for the Foundation to be apart of a larger discussion,” he said.

A social media posting by Williams is included in an article titled, “Does Jeff Ashton’s Refusal To Debate Opponent Aramis Ayala Show Fear of The Black Vote?”

“In good conscious, I couldn’t ask my candidate to participate in a debate organized by someone who’s written something like that,” Foglesong said.

In a separate effort, T.J. Legacy-Cole, also an Ayala supporter and community organizer, tried to plan a debate at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law in Orlando. The moderators would be selected by the candidates and agreed upon, he said in an email to the parties.

“It impedes the political process to not allow the residents in the community an opportunity to hear both candidate platforms at the same time, where they can debate their ideologies, especially with everything going on in the news with Black Lives Matter and police prosecution,” said Cole, who runs the social media group Orange County Black Voice. The primary is Aug. 30. Only registered Democrats can vote because the entrance of write-in candidate Bill Vose, a former office administrator, closes the primary to those registered with other parties.

Voters elected Ashton as the circuit’s top prosecutor in 2013. He’s worked at the State Attorney’s Office for 30 years.