WHYY/WDEL Debates for Governor, House, Senate Races Set
Mark your calendars! The local General Election debate season is upon us and this notice is of a series of three debates being sponsored/presented by WHYY and WDEL for the Governor’s race, the House Representative race and the Senate race. The (edited) press release with the details follows:
WHYY TO CO-PRESENT, BROADCAST THREE DEBATES FEATURING DELAWARE CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR, HOUSE, SENATE
What: WHYY will co-present with WDEL three Delaware debates, including the first between candidates for Delaware governor, hosted by Widener Law.Following are the debate dates and featured candidates:
• Tuesday, Oct.16: Incumbent Gov. Jack Markell (D) vs. Jeffrey Cragg (R) and Mark Perri (Green)
• Wednesday, Oct. 24: Incumbent U.S. Rep. John Carney (D) vs. Tom Kovach (R), Bernard August (Green) and Scott Gesty (Libertarian)
• Wednesday, Oct. 30: Incumbent U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D) vs. Kevin Wade (R), Andrew Groff (Green) and Alexander Pires (I)WDEL news anchors Peter MacArthur or Mellany Armstrong will moderate the debates, which will be broadcast live on 1150 WDEL-AM and at WDEL.com and Law.Widener.edu. WHYY-TV will broadcast the debates Oct. 17 for the governor’s race, Oct. 26 for the U.S. House race and Oct. 31 for the U.S. Senate race, all at 5 and 11 p.m.
Members of the public are encouraged to attend. Free parking is available.
When: Oct. 16, 24 and 30 from 8 to 9:30 a.m.
Where: Ruby R. Vale Moot Courtroom, Widener Law, 4601 Concord Pike, Wilmington
First off, I’m delighted that all of the candidates on the ballot are included to this debate, and many thanks to WHYY and WDEL for that organizational inclusion. I’m not sure if other debates are including the 3rd party candidates, so if you are interested in seeing what they have to say, I’d take advantage of this opportunity. Second, I posted this up abit early so you could make arrangements to be at these morning debates — if you are like me, you’ll need to make arrangements with your employer to be late that day.
Hope you’ll come out or at least tune in!
h/t Brian Rossiter at WHYY
Tags: 2012 Election, Debates, WDEL, WHYY
Why on earth did Tom Carper agree to TEN debates with Kevin Wade? They are already part way through them. I’ll have to watch the videos if I really, really have nothing else to do.
“Why on earth did Tom Carper agree to TEN debates with Kevin Wade?”
Because he doesn’t understand the seductiveness of suede.
Cassandra
Most other debates have extended invitations to 3rd party candidates with the notable and obvious exception of UD/DFM, which continues to assert that only Rs and Ds will be invited (not saying that but hiding behind “national rules of inclusion” written by the Republican and Democratic Parties).
Thanks Steve! I think I was expecting that the exclusion of 3rd party candidates was the norm. So if the UD/DFM one is the exception, that strikes me as small progress.
So where are these 10 Carper/Wade debates happening? Is Carper calling Wade for a Telephone Debate or is he actually showing up someplace?
cassandra
WDEL/WHYY, as I understand it (what I have been told, not personal knowledge) have generally included all ballot-qualified candidates.
The big breakthrough this year was the Jewish Federation of Delaware setting aside its rules (which were much like UD/DFM) and at the last minute inviting everyone. Quite a few folks could not go because the turn on a dime was unexpected and came less than 36 hours before the debate (3rd party candidates, to be honest, being a lot more susceptible to inflexible work schedules or the needs of child care).
Ironically, as a Libertarian, while I will argue as hard as I can for my candidates to be included at places like JFM, they are a private organization and I recognize their right to exclude.
But UD and DFM are both “public” organizations, receiving a significant amount of their funding through State and Federal sources, and to me this means they have an obligation to be non-partisan.
An example: Markell held one of his campaign kickoffs at DSU (and Michelle Obama appeared there in the 2008 campaign). In neither case was either campaign charged rent for the room/hall or even a fee for the additional security. This is business as usual in Delaware, I guess. But what I was proud of is that when I approached the DSU administration to host an event with Jim Gray (the Libertarian VP candidate last week) I was afforded exactly the same treatment. I got the room at no charge, they made sure that parking would be easily available, and DSU PR sent out all the same press releases and even managed to land Judge Gray an interview with WHYY that I would (in all honesty) not have been able to land. For that I am proud of my employer, because I think that should be the standard.
I am also offended at UD claiming to be non-partisan in its rules when the only in-state politicians on its Advisory Council are Markell, Carper, Coons, and Carney. I cannot honestly say that they did not ask any local GOPers (they did ask Chris Christie), but I think it is unfortunate in the extreme that only one state party has representation on that body.
Cassandra
I’m pretty sure Carper is the most visible politician in the state. Like him or not he’s hardly hiding. But cute try.
Nice job putting on debates that are open to all candidates! Much appreciated.