No argument here: Bob Brooks pull out of PA-7 debate

On the eve of the lone debate between the candidates for Pennsylvania’s tightly contested 7th Congressional District – an event already scheduled less than two weeks prior to the Nov. 3 election – Lehigh Valley voters found out that there would be no debate at all in one of the commonwealth’s – and the nation’s – highest-stakes races.

Democrat Bob Brooks, the president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, withdrew on Monday from the planned Oct. 21 debate against his Republican rival, incumbent U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie. In a statement, Brooks cited Mackenzie’s aggressive campaign rhetoric – including accusations of criminality and explorations of unsavory family matters – for the decision to cancel the debate appearance.

Benny Stanislawski, Brooks’ communications director, said Mackenzie has refused to comply with a cease-and-desist letter from Brooks’ lawyer, which asked the candidate and the National Republican Congressional Committee to remove TV ads the Brooks campaign has called “defamatory” and “riddled with blatant lies.”

The ad accuses Brooks of violating state law by not carrying workers’ compensation insurance for his small business, Brooks Lawn Care, while his son worked there. In a Tuesday interview, Mackenzie – a first-term member of Congress considered among the most vulnerable this November – also repeated a claim that his rival broke federal law by lying on a COVID-19 grant application tied to that small business.

“In light of Mackenzie’s failure to abide by the cease and desist and unending defamatory rhetoric … Bob informed WFMZ today that he will not give a platform for Mackenzie to continue to spread outright lies on television,” Stanislawski said in a statement.

“For months, Ryan Mackenzie has leveled outright lies against 20 year firefighter Bob Brooks that go completely outside of the bounds of acceptable campaign rhetoric. His attacks have become so deranged in his final acts of desperation that he has stooped to begging Trump’s DOJ to weaponize the justice system and politically prosecute Bob just weeks out from the election.”

But in an interview on Tuesday with City & State, Mackenzie expressed skepticism about Brooks’ stated motives for pulling out.

“I think this was strategically planned by the Brooks campaign that they were never going to debate,” said the Republican, who previously served six terms in the state House of Representatives.

“I don’t think he is very well-versed in the issues. I think he has very far-left positions that he can't defend – and then secondly, he has many scandals that have plagued his campaign that he does not have answers for … or (he) doesn’t want to be on a debate stage where he is getting questioned on those topics.”

In backing up his claim, Mackenzie questioned the Brooks’ campaign’s choice of Oct. 21 for the sole debate. Considering that some have already cast their ballots in early voting, he argued that two weeks prior to the election is too late for a debate to be a fair airing of views.

“We told the station right up front … what happens if something comes up or they pull out or whatever? You have no opportunity to reschedule,” Mackenzie explained, “and sure enough, that’s what happened here.”

In declining to debate, Brooks offered to sit down with the event’s scheduled moderator, Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO Tony Iannelli, for a half-hour interview on WFMZ, the television station where Iannelli hosts the long-running series “Business Matters.”

Reached on Tuesday, Iannelli expressed measured regret about the cancelled debate. “It was the one and only … So that’s an opportunity missed,” he told City & State. “At the same time, I understand politics, he added, referring to the Brooks campaign’s rationale for cancellation: “We have to honor that.”

Having hosted a TV program for nearly a quarter-century, Iannelli reflected that televised debates are less consequential than they once were. 

“With social media, people are getting information in other ways,” he said. “I think 10 years ago it would have been much, much more important … It would have been on the front page of a physical newspaper. It would have had a shelf life.”

In 2026, Iannelli pointed out, many in the Lehigh Valley have already voted early. And the electorate is polarized enough today, he added, that most have likely already made up their minds as to their preferred candidate. “We’ve still got two more weeks until the election,” he concluded. “We'll see what happens. I'll be curious to see if it has any impact in any way.”