Senate hopefuls to debate on cable

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri's second and final U.S. Senate debate next Thursday will be nationally televised.

C-SPAN, which reaches about 82 million households with cable TV, will show the 90-minute debate live on its primary channel at 2:30 p.m. and will rerun it that evening in prime time, Steve Scully, the cable network's political editor, said Friday.

KFVS-12, Cape Girardeau's CBS affiliate, is considering running the debate Thursday, said news director Mark Little. Little said they just received information about the broadcast Friday. They plan to make a decision early next week, Little said. KBSI-23 will not broadcast the debate.

The debate is the only time all four Senate candidates are to share a stage before the Nov. 5 election. The candidates are Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan, Republican Jim Talent, Libertarian Tamara Millay and Green Party nominee Daniel "digger" Romano.

The candidates will be questioned by a panel of reporters before a live audience in Launer Auditorium on the campus of Columbia College.

The debate is sponsored by the Associated Press Managing Editors, the Missouri Society of Newspaper Editors, the Missouri Press Association and the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Available for broadcast

The sponsors are making the broadcast of the debate available at no charge to all radio and television stations.

Also, Missourinet, a statewide radio network, will offer the debate live to its 66 affiliates, plus affiliates of the Brownfield farm network and the Tiger sports network. The debate can be listened to on its Web site as well, at www.missourinet.com.

KBIA, the National Public Radio affiliate in Columbia, will air the debate live and provide streaming audio of the debate on its Internet site, www.kbia.org.

The first broadcast debate, in which Carnahan and Talent are the only participating candidates, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday. KZIM-960, the AM talk station in Cape Girardeau, will broadcast that debate, but not Thursday's debate because of scheduling conflicts, the station said. It will also be on Missourinet's Web site.

That debate will originate from St. Louis public television station KETC and is co-sponsored by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KMOX radio. C-SPAN will show that debate live, Scully said. It will also be available to public and commercial stations across the state.

C-SPAN is available in 98.5 percent of U.S. homes with cable TV, Scully said. He said about 60 percent of Missouri households have cable.

Staff writer Scott Moyers contributed to this report.