If Republican congressional candidate Marty Ozinga hoped to stay off the political hot seat by backing out of tomorrow's 11th District debate ... well, he didn't do a very good job of it.

Among those quick to take shots at Ozinga this morning is his Democratic rival Debbie Halvorson. Her campaign manager, Brian Doory, released this statement today:

"This disappointing action speaks volumes about Marty Ozinga and his campaign. If he cannot even stand up and address business issues among his fellow chamber members, how can he expect to communicate with regular voters on the issues important to them?” [...]

"Even though Martin Ozinga is on the wrong side of the tracks on the EJ&E Acquisition, and so many other issues important to local voters, it's deeply troubling that Martin Ozinga lacks the courage to look people in the eye and tell them he's not on their side.”

Ozinga had earlier signaled he was unhappy with the set-up of the debate, organized by the Southland Chamber of Commerce. He initially requested that Southtown Star columnist Kristen McQueary be replaced as moderator because, he claimed, she holds a bias against him.

In today's press release announcing his decision to back out, Ozinga's campaign further argued that Halvorson "used her family ties to slant in her favor what was pitched as a fair forum by a purportedly non-partisan organization," referring to the fact that her husband chaired the Chamber years ago.  The Halvorson campaign responded by pointing out that Ozinga's concrete company is a Chamber member.

Rich Miller's analysis is that Ozinga -- by repudiating the Chamber, McQueary, the Star, and Governor's State University (the location of the forum) -- dissed "pretty much everybody who is anybody in that region."