Governor Sanders, Asked Twice in Debate, Declines to Promise She'll Serve the Full Term She Is Asking For

LITTLE ROCK — Governor Sanders was asked during Tuesday's gubernatorial debate whether voters could count on her to finish a second four-year term if they gave her one. She did not say yes. She was asked again. She did not say yes again, and then reminded the moderator that she had already answered.

'I'm committed to the people of this state, and that's why I'm running for reelection,' Sanders said, which The Press's statehouse desk has reviewed carefully and confirms is a sentence about running, not about staying.

The question followed months of out-of-state travel, national television appearances and the kind of early-state handshake circuit that governors traditionally describe as 'sharing our story.' Sanders's challenger seized on the answer, observing that the governor would not look voters in the eye and promise not to run for president. The governor looked at the camera instead.

Sanders is not alone. The same week, at least one other big-state governor declined the same pledge, suggesting that the most popular office in America this autumn is the one after the one people are currently campaigning for.

The Press runs the flip: when the other party's rising star dodges the full-term question, it is 'treating the state as a stepping stone.' When Sanders dodges it, it is 'keeping her options open for the good of the country.' The term is four years under either name; the commitment is the part with the asterisk.