Atlantic County, NJ, Sheriff Candidates Debate Is Confirmed
Kudos to both candidates for accepting my invitation. In the interest of the public, there will be an Atlantic County Sheriff candidates debate on local radio.
The Effectiveness Of Live, Local, Two-Way Talk Radio
During a live interview this morning with Atlantic County Sheriff Joe O’Donoghue — I challenged him to accept a debate versus his challenger, Sean Riggin on our program — “Hurley in the Morning” on WPG Talk Radio 95.5 FM, 1450 AM & the WPG App.
O’Donoghue immediately accepted the challenge.
Next, I Put Out The Challenge On-Air To Sean Riggin
I sent the challenge to Riggin, both on-air and by a text message that I sent during my live on-air interview with O’Donoghue.
Riggin accepted my invitation within just a few minutes, writing a group text message to me, Sheriff O’Donoghue and another local talk radio host, Scott Cronick from WOND Radio.
Good morning. I'm looping everyone together in the interest of transparency. Harry has offered a debate and stated that Joe has agreed. However, Scott Cronick offered the debate under similar rules and both Joe and I agreed to that months ago. If you, Joe, would like to do 2 debates then I'm open to that but I'm not willing to cancel one in favor of the other.
O’Donoghue Immediately Accepted The Second Debate Offer
So, now there will be two live Sheriff candidates debates, as follows:
Tuesday, October 27, 2026, for the 4:00 p.m. hour on Scott Cronick’s WOND radio program.
Friday, October 30, 2026, for the 8:00 a.m. on WPG Talk Radio, for the 8:00 a.m. hour of the “Hurley in the Morning” program.
Today was a great example of two local competing radio stations and two opposing candidates all working together towards a common goal — and that is to give the public the opportunity to hear from both of the candidates in two live debates.
“Hurley in the Morning” Debate Rules
The winner of a coin toss will decide whether he would like to give the first opening statement, or, have the final closing statement.
Opening and closing statements will have a time limit of up to two minutes each.
The two candidates will control the hour, not the host. The first question will be posed by the candidate who gave the opening statement.
The host will keep the time on a stop watch throughout the debate.
The two candidates will control the hour, not the host.
The candidates will control the topics and questions. The host will not pose a question to either candidate during the one hour debate.
Up to 2 minutes will be given to answer each question. The candidate who poses the question will be given a one minute rebuttal.
The rounds of questions will alternate and we will do as many rounds of questions as our one hour time limit permits.
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