Djou pulls out of televised mayoral forum

Charles Djou has withdrawn from a live, televised mayoral candidates forum a month out from the scheduled broadcast, PBS Hawaii announced this morning.

Several weeks ago, the Republican mayoral candidate, along with incumbent Democrat Kirk Caldwell, agreed to a live discussion on PBS Hawaii’s “Insights” program.

The forum, which was scheduled for Thursday, October 27 at 8:00 p.m., is one of many the public television station has organized since August. Candidates for State House and Senate races, as well as Honolulu and neighbor island council races, have been scheduled on the show every week leading up to the General Election.

This week, Sam Aiona from the Djou campaign told PBS Hawaii Djou was withdrawing from the appearance, stating, “We respectfully decline.” No further reason was given for the withdrawal.

Insights airs on PBS Hawaii on Thursday nights at 8:00 p.m., with a live stream available on pbshawaii.org. The station says the show’s trademark “loosely structured live format” sets its discussions apart from “traditional, rigid televised debate formats.”