Call it a debate about a debate that will likely never take place.

Incumbent Mayor Laurence Leyens and Democratic challenger Paul Winfield have not sat down face-to-face, though both said they would welcome the opportunity following Winfield’s convincing win in the May 5 Democratic primary.

With election day looming on Tuesday, one local radio host is making a last-ditch effort to get the candidates to square off in a debate for broadcast, but the chances of it occurring appear slim. On Thursday, Leyens said he’s game, but claimed Winfield’s campaign simply refuses. Winfield maintained his campaign managers were not given enough notice and now he’s too booked to take any time out of his schedule.

David Day, host of the “Live from the Klondyke” morning show on WVBG 1490 AM, said he contacted both candidates’ campaign managers on Wednesday about setting up an hour-long radio event.

“Leyens’ campaign responded almost immediately, and they were very positive about it. The Winfield camp said they’d call back. They did not; we called them (Thursday) and apparently they have scheduling conflicts,” said Day. 

Day acknowledged supporting Leyens since he first took office in 2001, but said he is still undecided on whom to vote for come Tuesday.

“I haven’t taken a position. I’ve always supported the mayor because I believe as a Christian you should support your leaders… but going into the election there’s still a lot of questions out there about the candidates,” Day said. “We’re not getting a lot of feedback from either party — just the typical campaign stuff.”

Winfield said Leyens’ campaign has had plenty of time to organize a meeting and said he was not trying to dodge a discussion.

“I’m not going to accept that this is just an attempt by David Day to put together a debate. If Laurence Leyens wanted to debate me, he had almost a month to have done so. I think this is a desperate attempt on behalf of his campaign,” Winfield said.

During the primary, Winfield participated in two debates with three other candidates. He took 61.5 percent of the vote in the primary and avoided a runoff. Winfield said he will be busily canvassing neighborhoods through election day, and simply cannot work a debate into his schedule on such short notice.

Leyens said his campaign did not have anything to do with Day’s attempts to organize a debate.

“I have no relationship whatsoever with David Day. Mr. Winfield has clearly been informed not to debate me, and I can understand that. I wouldn’t want to debate me, either,” Leyens said. “I’m prepared for a debate anytime, anywhere. Paul is playing games.”

Still, even Leyens admitted he doesn’t believe a debate would sway many voters this close to election day.

“I don’t personally think there’s much to gain by it,” he said. “I think the voters have already made up their minds.”

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com