Ball challenges Alexander to debate by using man in chicken suit wearing plaid shirt

photo From left, Democratic Senate candidate Gordon Ball, the Chicken and former U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis share a moment before Ball kicked off a "No Show Lamar" bus tour.

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NASHVILLE -- Flanked by a man in a yellow chicken suit wearing a familiar-looking plaid shirt, Democrat Gordon Ball today again called on Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander to debate him and hinted if the senator won't, it's because he's ...

Well, you know the drill. Otherwise, why would Ball be standing next to a six-foot tall chicken wearing the same-style checked shirt Alexander wore in two successful gubernatorial campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s?

"He won't come out, he won't come out and fight," Ball said of Alexander to a group of reporters as he kicked off a "No Show Lamar" bus tour. "He'll fight on TV, and he'll fight through his TV ads, but that's it."

Ball and Alexander made a joint appearance last week before Tennessee Farm Bureau leaders last week in a forum that the Farm Bureau said wasn't intended to be a debate. But it sometimes took on aspects of one as the two clashed.

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Still, Alexander has refused to take Ball up on the Democrat's call for a series of televised debates across the state.

While Ball didn't directly call Alexander a "chicken" today, he referred to the chicken as "Lamar."

On Thursday, Ball and six independent candidates plan to hold their own debate in Nashville.

Others participating include Joshua James, a Libertarian, as well Constitution Party candidate Joe Wilmoth; Green Party candidate Martin Pleasant; Danny Page, an independent constitutional conservative; Edmund Gauthier, a constitutional independent and "anti-party" candidate, and Tom Emerson, a Tea Party member running as an independent.

Alexander's seat is considered solidly Republican by a number of neutral observers including the Cook Political Report.

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