Evan McMorris-Santoro October 22, 2010, 2:58 PM

After last Sunday’s debate in the Kentucky Senate race basically devolved into name-calling and innuendo, Republican nominee Rand Paul said he wasn’t sure if he’d participate in next week’s final debate with Democrat Jack Conway.

That was Monday. Then all week, as Conway milked his Aqua Buddha ad for all it was worth, Paul milked his decision-making process about the final debate, too, with his campaign holding multiple press conferences surrounding the debate and Aqua Buddha. Today, Paul brought the drama to a close, agreeing to meet Conway on Oct. 25 in what will be the candidates’ last face-to-face meeting before voters go to the polls.

“With 10 days to go, I wish the campaign were about who has the best vision for Kentucky and America,” Paul said, according to the AP. “We face a serious debt crisis in this country, and I want to be part of finding the solution. I don’t think the debate is advanced by personal invective and slander.”

No word yet on whether Paul made the decision with any assurance that the story of his days as an undergraduate at Baylor University — where an anonymous woman has said he and a friend tied her up, put her in a creek and asked her to worship ‘Aqua Buddha’ (a charge Paul has kind of denied) — will play a diminished roll in the Monday debate. Paul said that if Conway was going to talk about Aqua Buddha, he didn’t see the point in showing up.

The only other remaining mystery now is whether or not Paul will shake Conway’s hand at the end of Monday’s debate. Last time, after telling Conway, “you demean the state of Kentucky,” Paul stormed off the stage without greeting his opponent.

The TPM Poll Average shows Paul leading Conway 47.1-42.6.

2010 elections, Jack Conway, KY-SEN, Rand Paul, Senate '10