Citing Sandy, Brown and Warren Bow Out of Final Senate Debate

Republican Senator Scott Brown decided Monday not to show up to Tuesday night's final debate with Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, citing Hurricane Sandy as the reason.

"The Scott Brown campaign today announced that out of concern for the hardship faced by people in the path of Hurricane Sandy that he will not be participating in tomorrow's fourth and final debate," said Brown Communication Director Colin Reed. "It is simply not appropriate to go forward with a political debate when a disaster strikes. The focus for all of us before, during and after the storm needs to be on emergency response and disaster relief, not campaigns and politics."

Later on Monday, Warren's campaign manager, Mindy Meyers, issued a similar statement, saying, "Elizabeth believes the focus now must be on public safety and ensuring people get the help they need during the storm and in its aftermath. With the concern for public safety and cleanup paramount, Elizabeth believes  the debate should not be held tomorrow."

Brown and Warren were scheduled to meet Tuesday night in Boston for a live debate moderated by CNN's John King. The debate was sponsored by a group of Boston media outlets, which had planned to go forward with the Tuesday event, according to boston.com.