Democrat Karl Dean says he didn't know he would get this much stage time without his opponent.

Dean was the lone candidate at a West Tennessee Mayors Association luncheon in Jackson on Aug. 29, a Tennessee superintendents conference in Gatlinburg on Sept. 10, and a panel talk hosted by the Tennessee Medical Association on Sept. 14.

Republican Bill Lee passed on invitations to each of these candidate events — and others — leaving the former mayor of Nashville to address the groups.

Since capturing the Republican nomination in August, Lee, chairman and former CEO of Lee Co., has been a clear frontrunner in the race to replace term-limited Gov. Bill Haslam. Several recent polls have shown Lee ahead by double-digits.

It's allowed the conservative Lee to comfortably pick and choose the events he attends and which he skips. Conversely, as he plays catch-up, Dean wants to face his rival anytime he can.

Lee has stuck to his own campaign schedule — a 95-county "Believe in Tennessee" tour — and his team has chalked up most of the absences to scheduling conflicts and pointed to the nearly dozen events the two candidates took part in together during the primaries and claims seven so far in the general election.

Lee has committed to three debates with Dean in October. But the Dean campaign claims he has appeared solo at 10 other events so far where Lee was also invited.

The latest came Thursday.

With a half-dozen reporters in attendance, Dean was the lone candidate to show up at a gubernatorial candidate luncheon hosted by Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. Lee's campaign cited an "unfortunate miscommunication."

Lee, Dean have agreed to three debates

The first of the three debates the Lee campaign has agreed to with Dean is set for Oct. 2 in Memphis.

Lee declined invitations for other televised debates that were on the table.

Dean raised the issue in late August, telling the USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee that his campaign's position has been to agree to every event where both candidates are invited.

"Obviously, you have two different campaigns that you have to coordinate with, but from my perspective, the more debates the better, and three to me seems very limited," Dean said.

"Chattanooga and Knoxville are left out entirely. I was hopeful we would do more," Dean said. "I think having a vigorous, robust campaign is a good thing for the state."

In 2010, the last time Tennessee had an open governor's race, Haslam and Democrat Mike McWherter took part in three televised debates.

But the campaign trail offers many other non-televised events for candidates to take questions. Dean and Lee have both appeared at some of them.

For instance, each took questions from teenagers at a Future Farmers of America breakfast at the Tennessee State Fair in Nashville. Weeks earlier, they each addressed the 36|86 Entrepreneurship Festival in Nashville. They also both spoke at an opioid summit last month in Nashville.

"As someone who comes from Rural Tennessee, Bill promised to touch all 95 counties in the 95-day General Election period trying to personally reach as many voters as he can," Lee campaign spokeswoman Laine Arnold said in a statement.

"As a result, the campaign is conducting one of the most aggressive grassroots campaigns in Tennessee history, touching all counties not once, but twice in the same election."

Arnold said "logistical and practical realities of campaigning across the entire state" make it difficult for Lee to attend all of the events he has been "kindly and graciously invited to" to attend.

Tennessee GOP: Bill Lee isn't dodging

The Lee campaign pointed to the state's historic trend when asked about debates.

“Staying consistent with the historical precedent of three General Election debates representing each grand division, Bill is also committed to participating in various events as his schedule allows," Arnold said.

His campaign declined invitations to upcoming functions, including the Rotary Club of Nashville's Oct. 1 forum.

Nashville Rotary executive director Suzanne Buchanan said Lee was unable to agree to the date due to a scheduling conflict. Dean will still speak at the event.

In response to critics' claims that Lee has been dodging appearances with Dean, Candice Dawkins, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Republican Party, said Lee has been "crisscrossing the state" to meet with residents and also pointed to the upcoming televised debates.

"The idea that he's not out communicating with folks and meeting with voters is ridiculous," she said.

Superintendents' group 'disappointed' in Lee's absence

When Lee didn't accept an invitation to speak at an annual joint conference between the Department of Education and Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents on Sept. 10, it caught the groups by surprise, said TOSS executive director Dale Lynch.

"The superintendents were very disappointed," Lynch said. "And felt like it was a missed opportunity for him to be able to share some of his thoughts about public education in Tennessee."

Lynch said that in the roughly two decades he has been part of the conference, to his memory, gubernatorial nominees from both parties have addressed the event, which this year drew 140 of the state's 146 school superintendents.

Lee attended the Future Farmers of America breakfast the day of the school superintendents event before traveling to campaign stops in Pickett and Fentress counties.

"We began the day at the Future Farmers of America Breakfast, which was a joint appearance with Mayor Dean," Arnold said. "We then traveled to two rural counties as part of his Believe in Tennessee Tour, one of which is listed as one of Tennessee’s 15 economically distressed counties.”

Dean pointed to Tennessee's recent low voter turnout numbers as reason why the two candidates should have more debates. He recalled doing dozens of candidate forums while running for Nashville mayor in 2007, and the long list of forums that he and Lee took part in during the primaries.

"The more, the better," he said. " And there's time to do it."

Reach Joey Garrison at jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter at @joeygarrison. Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com and on Twitter at @natalie_allison.