Senator Scott Brown’s campaign said today that he would accept a third televised debate, the highest profile face-off yet, sponsored by a consortium of Boston-based media.

The announcement comes after Brown refused to debate at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, because Vicki Kennedy, widow of the late senator, declined his request that she stay neutral in the Senate contest. Vicki Kennedy, an active Democrat who is president of the institute’s board, had issued the debate invitation.

Brown, a Republican, and his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, had previously agreed to two other televised match ups, one hosted by WBZ’s Jon Keller, and another by a consortium of Western Massachusetts media. Warren had also agreed to the third debate, sponsored by a Boston consortium, which includes The Boston Globe.


Warren has not responded to debate requests from two radio shows, and Brown has said he will show up to those debates regardless of what his opponent does.

In a statement today, Brown’s campaign manager Jim Barnett again challenged Warren to accept the WBZ radio debate, hosted by conservative host Dan Rea.

“Scott Brown is accepting the debate invitation from the Boston media consortium,’’ Barnett wrote in a press release. “He will be at the first debate at WBZ radio on June 27, just seven days from now. We hope that Elizabeth Warren will stop dodging and join us next week so we can discuss the problem with her extremely liberal tax and spend policies and why they will kill jobs and further damage the economy.’’

Democrats had previously chided Brown for rejecting the Kennedy debate. Earlier this morning, Warren’s campaign challenged Brown to accept the Boston media consortium face off.

“It’s not clear what he’s afraid of,’’ Warren campaign manager Mindy Myers said in a statement.

“Brown laid out his conditions for debate and under his own conditions, there is nothing to stop him from accepting a debate hosted by a wide variety of Massachusetts media – unless he really doesn’t want to talk about his record siding with Wall Street, big corporations, and millionaires,’’ she continued.