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SARANAC LAKE - Two of the three congressional candidates in New York's 23rd District have agreed to appear at a debate in Plattsburgh Wednesday, and all three have committed to attend an in-studio debate Thursday, at WSYR Newschannel 9's studio in Syracuse.

However, a debate planned for Monday has been canceled. Syracuse's News10Now had planned to tape a debate at 1 p.m. Democratic and Working Families Party candidate Bill Owens had never committed to attend. Republican and Independence Party candidate Dede Scozzafava had, as did Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, but Hoffman's campaign canceled Sunday.

"Dede Scozzafava is plummeting in the polls," said Hoffman spokesman Rob Ryan when asked why Hoffman decided not to attend. "She has become a spoiler in this race. The real race is between Doug Hoffman and Bill Owens."

Owens and Scozzafava have committed to debate at 5 p.m. Wednesday in SUNY Plattsburgh's E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium, Hawkins Hall. North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann and Plattsburgh Student Association President Lindsay Lyons will moderate, according to a prepared statement from the college, and audience members will be able to submit questions. Ryan said Hoffman will not attend.

"That's the perfect venue for Dede Scozzafava and Bill Owens to battle it out and see who's the biggest liberal," Ryan said.

Although Syracuse is not in the district, which sprawls over 11 counties from Lake Champlain to Lake Ontario, much of the western part of the district is served by Syracuse-based television stations.

Republican state Assembly members Will Barclay, Janet Duprey, Bob Oakes, Teresa Sayward and Dave Townsend put out a statement Monday calling Hoffman the spoiler in the race and calling on him to drop out and support Scozzafava.

"This is a campaign for Congress, not an audition to be a talking head on a cable news program," said Duprey, who is also chairwoman of the Clinton County Republican Party. "Doug Hoffman doesn't live here, he doesn't understand our local issues and, regardless of his campaign's theatrics and false polls, he knows he is completely unelectable. Make no mistake about it - Doug Hoffman is a spoiler, and by staying in this race he will jeopardize a seat the Republican Party has held here since the Civil War."

Hoffman grew up in Saranac Lake, most of which is inside the district, but lives in Lake Placid, which is in the 20th Congressional District. He has said he would move to Saranac Lake if elected.

Scozzafava held a conference call on Monday in which she said she thinks the election, which has attracted national attention, press coverage and financing, has been "hijacked by outside interests" and questioned her opponents' understanding of the district.

"They understand issues in Washington-speak, but they don't understand the issues and dilemmas daily people face," Scozzafava said.

Scozzafava said they should meet "directly and talk about the issues, versus having it all driven by 30-second commercials."

Owens spokesman Jon Boughtin said Owens couldn't make Monday's debate due to a breakfast at the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce Monday morning and other scheduled events, such as an appearance in Oswego with U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer Monday afternoon.

WWNY-TV 7 tried to organize a debate, and various groups tried to organize one at Clarkson University, but Scozzafava was the only candidate to commit to attending these, and they fell through. Both Hoffman and Scozzafava attended a meet-the-candidates event in Wanakena last week and a forum on health care in Plattsburgh earlier this month, organized by the Upstate New York Tea Party.

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Club for Growth poll

The Club for Growth, a free-market conservative group which has endorsed Hoffman, released a poll Monday showing Hoffman with 31 percent support, Owens with 27 percent, Scozzafava with 20 percent and 22 percent undecided.

"Hoffman now has a wide lead among both Republicans and independents, while Owens has a wide lead among Democrats," said Basswood Research's pollster pollster Jon Lerner, who conducted the poll for the Club, in a prepared statement. "Dede Scozzafava's support continues to collapse, making this essentially a two-candidate race between Hoffman and Owens in the final week."

The poll of 300 likely voters was carried out on Saturday and Sunday and has a 5.7 percent margin of error.

"I don't have any faith in that poll," Scozzafava said, noting that she had only 20 percent of the vote in a Club for Growth poll released in late September but 35 percent in a Siena Research Institute poll released Oct. 1.

"I am quite confident and comfortable, next week we're going to win this race," Scozzafava said.

The second Siena poll, released Oct. 15, had Owens with 33 percent, Scozzafava with 29 percent and Hoffman with 23 percent.

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Earmarks

Scozzafava also spoke in the conference call about "earmarks," or appropriations requested by representatives to fund individual projects. She said she thinks earmarks need to be "accountable and transparent" but that they are necessary to help the economy, particularly in a rural district that has "so many needs." She said refusing to accept earmarks "puts the residents at a definite disadvantage," and said local representatives are best qualified to know which projects need funding.

Hoffman has said he will not accept earmarks if elected. The Watertown Daily Times ran a story on Saturday saying $114 million in construction done at Fort Drum has been funded by earmarks over the past decade, requested by former U.S. Rep. John McHugh.

"Doug Hoffman is totally out of touch, and it's obvious that he intends to put his special-interest backers from Washington ahead of Fort Drum, military families and everyone else in the 23rd Congressional District," Scozzafava spokesman Matt Burns said in a prepared statement.

Hoffman said in a prepared statement Monday that he is opposed to earmarks, pointing to $2.6 billion in earmarks that were diverted from the operations and maintenance accounts of the $636 billion defense spending bills for 2010 as examples of problems with the system. According to the Washington Times, instead of being used for fuel, ammunition and training, this money was diverted to 778 different projects, such as $25 million for a World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an education institute named after the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

"Earmarks are bad for the economy," Hoffman said. "It's common sense; they lead to higher taxes and they increase the ever-growing deficit."

"Wasteful projects have no place in any budget, and we need more accountability and transparency when it comes to spending federal resources," Owens said in an e-mail. "I will always fight for federal funding for worthy programs at Fort Drum, for infrastructure in our communities, for academic institutions, for rural development and for other programs that drive the economy here in our region."

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Contact Nathan Brown at 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.