David Jolly has announced his refusal to debate gubernatorial opponent Byron Donalds during the general election.

The decision was announced by the Jolly campaign Sunday, with Jolly asserting that “debates this cycle would not create constructive, honest conversation and only further stoke division, animosity and bad will.”

The announcement came just two days after the Donalds campaign said it had accepted invitations to three debates. But getting the two candidates onto the same stage had already become something of a debate itself.

Jolly’s campaign previously accepted invitations to appear at Tampa Tiger Bay and at a CBS Miami event with journalist Jim DeFede. Donalds’ campaign, meanwhile, announced Friday that it had accepted debates hosted by Spectrum News, News4Jax and Telemundo/NBC 6.

The two campaigns had not agreed to the same events – the timelines simply didn’t line up. Jolly said Sunday that Donalds had refused debates his campaign had previously accepted and accused his Republican opponent of attempting to set the terms through a press release.

Donalds had been challenging Jolly to debate for months. In July, his campaign publicly called for three debates between the two candidates.

At the time, however, Donalds was facing his own questions about debates. He did not debate his Republican primary opponents before winning the GOP nomination.

Jolly didn’t debate his Democratic primary opponents either. Now, barring another reversal, neither will debate in the general election.

Refusing to debate, or changing positions on when and where to debate, has parallels in other Florida elections this cycle.

St. Petersburg’s mayoral race has seen its own debate about debates.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist skipped a July 28 Suncoast Tiger Bay Club debate during the mayoral primary, making him the only one of the six candidates in the race who was invited but chose not to attend.

Crist’s campaign cited accessibility and cost. Tickets to the event ranged from $25 to $75 and only Tiger Bay members could ask questions, according to his campaign. Instead, Crist held a free telephone town hall that his campaign said attracted 7,500 participants.

Mayor Ken Welch used Crist’s empty spot at the debate to call him out. “The way that someone runs their campaign is the way they will run the mayor’s office,” Welch said during the event.

Crist also declined another pre-primary event over admission costs. Then the primary ended. After Crist and Welch advanced to the November runoff, Crist became the candidate issuing the debate challenge.

“I hope Mayor Welch will join me in committing to a meaningful debate where voters can gather the information needed to make informed decisions at the ballot box,” Crist said in late August.

This time, Crist specifically called for a televised debate, arguing that an event available on television would avoid the accessibility concerns he raised about the earlier forums.

Spectrum Bay News 9 has scheduled Welch and Crist to face one another Oct. 13 at 7 p.m.

U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody has declined debate invitations from Democratic challenger Angie Nixon.

The circumstances in each race are different.

Crist objected to the accessibility and cost of primary forums before requesting a televised general-election debate. Welch will participate in that debate.

Moody has said she does not want to give Nixon a platform.