Menino's late-game debate: yes, he will

I'd originally titled this post "Menino: No debate after preliminary?" But two things prompted me to change that. First, I hear from a Menino-related source that the mayor still plans to conduct three debates in toto, two before September's preliminary election and one after (assuming he makes it to the final, which I think we can). Second, mayoral challenger Kevin McCrea--whose blog post I originally followed--tells me that I've misread him, or he wasn't clear, or something to that effect:

"Menino's team wasn't saying they won't debate after the primary," McCrea said in an email earlier today. "They are just not going to commit to when that debate is until after the primary. They are still holding to their line of two debates before the primary and one debate after, they just aren't letting anyone know what those debates are and they refuse to meet with the 3 other candidates."

So, there you have it.  The original post follows.

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So reports Menino opponent Kevin McCrea, who just attended a campaign/media meeting aimed at finalizing a mayoral-debate schedule.

Here's the obvious follow-up question: if Menino only agrees to hold, say, one debate--and that before the preliminary election--how aggressive will the press be in reporting/commenting on his unwillingness to engage his opponents?

Actually, here's another follow-up: if Menino barely debates, and the media does its damndest to make this a major issue, will the Boston electorate care, or not? After all, and notwithstanding the handsome illustration above, if 57 percent of Bostonians have personally met the mayor, it's hard to turn a paucity of debates into a bigger claim that Menino is out of touch.