Both the Tom McClintock and Charlie Brown camps say their candidates are primed to duke it out verbally on the debate dais.

But just where those debates will take place, how many there will be and what format they will take on is still the subject of, well, debate.

Brown, the Democratic Party candidate in the 4th District congressional election, has proposed a series of four debates in four different counties within the sprawling Northern California district.

McClintock, the GOP candidate vying to win the post now held by veteran Republican congressman John Doolittle, R-Roseville, has suggested as many as nine debates in nine counties preceding the Nov. 4 vote.

Brown issued what he described as a challenge to McClintock on Thursday to commit to a four-debate series in October. Todd Stenhouse, spokesman for the Democratic candidate, said the challenge was made to get McClintock’s campaign staff to stop “dragging its heels.”

Stan Devereux, who has served as McClintock's spokesman in trying to hammer out a debate schedule and format, said that the Brown challenge came two months after McClintock initiated attempts to set up a series of meetings. Three face-to-face meetings had already occurred and another was scheduled for Thursday – the day of the Brown challenge, Devereux said.

The McClintock spokesman said he had to bow out of the Thursday meeting to attend a memorial service and was “surprised” when the news release was issued by Brown challenging his candidate to the four debates.

Stenhouse said that initial talks were tainted when McClintock brought in a former Doolittle staff member in an attempt to manipulate the process rather than serve as facilitator. When false rumors began spreading on the Internet by McClintock supporters about the debate situation it was time to go public with Brown’s position to quell distortions, he said.

“We approached the process in exceptionally good faith,” Stenhouse said.

The debate before the debate between camps goes deeper than the squabble over locales and number of debates.

McClintock favors what is described as the Lincoln-Douglas debate format while Stenhouse said Brown favors the town-hall style. The town-hall format would allow questions directly from the floor while the Lincoln-Douglas debate includes written questions from the audience. There are several other differences – and similarities – in the formats.

Either way, it would be a departure from two years ago when the public was shut out of the lone debate Doolittle would assent to. That debate occurred in a closed-set environment at a Rocklin TV studio, with even reporters prevented from entering.

Brown narrowly lost to Doolittle in his first attempt at public office. The congressman said in January that he would not run again.

“This race is shaping up to be among the most closely watched in America this year,” Stenhouse said, in a statement accompanying Brown’s challenge. “We are committed to partnering with community organizations and media outlets across the Sacramento, Chico and Reno markets to ensure every voter is able to access every debate.”

While McClintock prefers the Lincoln-Douglas format, he did debate in other forms during the primary election, Devereux said.

Devereux said Stenhouse and he had talked Tuesday about reconnecting and continuing to finalize details of debates and how to unveil those details.

Both candidates want to hone in on specific issues during the debates. Devereux said his candidate would agree to a format that would not allow personal characterizations or attacks.

“It would just give two individuals a chance to go back and forth on America’s important issues,” he said.

Offshore oil drilling would be one topic McClintock would like to see given a focus for a debate, Devereux said.

Brown has proposed that the first three debates be about national security, the economy and one other domestic policy area. He’s also calling for weekly debates starting Oct. 8 , with the first one in Placer County. Further debates would take place in El Dorado County and Nevada County. A longer debate in a northern county still to be determined would finish off the series.

Devereux said the challenge is surprising because it’s about something he thought was moving ahead.

“It’s about getting these two gentlemen together for discussion of issues as often as we can, depending on their schedules,” he said. “We’re still hopeful that we can increase the number of debates so that every county would have an opportunity to hear more than 30-second sound bites.”

The Journal’s Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.