BOISE -  Idaho Republican Party Chairman Steve Yates issued the following statement regarding the recently-cancelled Idaho Public Television congressional debates and the Idaho Democrat's  subsequent statement attempting to shift blame off of their candidates failure to perform the most basic of campaign tasks-meet deadlines.

"It's unfortunate that the longstanding congressional debates televised statewide were cancelled due to the democrat candidates' failure to comply with deadlines to qualify. While the Republican candidates met these deadlines and were ready and eager to debate, Democrat candidates slighted the voters because of their campaign incompetency. In a recent press release, Democrats say their candidates were planning to participate in the Idaho Public Television Congressional Debates. If this was true, they would have followed the simple process to qualify. Now, instead of taking responsibility for their failure, they are attempting to distract the voters with misleading information and shift the blame to the organization they failed to cooperate with in the first place. It is unfortunate that the Democrats could put together a press release to blame others for their failures, but couldn't get their candidates to file simple paperwork to afford Idahoans this important opportunity."