Who is being chicken? Is it Mark Warner or Jim Gilmore?
Warner’s campaign has said his busy schedule could not accommodate the League of Women Voters debate before the election. But Hernandez said the League of Women Voters extended an invitation to both Warner and Republican Jim Gilmore within a week of the Republican convention last May, which confirmed Gilmore would be the Republican Party nominee for U.S. Senate.
“The scheduling matter is ridiculous. He knows he is high up in the polls and he wants to hide his positions and ride that wave to the U.S. Senate seat,” said Ana Gamonal, a spokesperson for Gilmore. (from here)
Is it Gerry Connolly or Keith Fimian?
Eleventh district congressional candidate Keith Fimian said he is unaware of any scheduled debate between himself and his opponent, Fairfax County chairman Gerry Connolly (D). (from here)
Apparently, Connolly’s staff could not be reached to explain the scheduling difficulties.
There should be mandatory debates for every elected office.
A hint for the League of Women…There are OTHER candidates for the Senate race. Have your debate among them. The ideas presented by the Greens and Libertarians will be very enlightening to the citizens.
As for the Democrats and Republicans, if they can’t agree to debate, then the bloggers and the other media should work together to create a “virtual debate.”
First, create a list of questions to be asked to both candidates, with both getting the same questions over the next few weeks, one at a time.
For example, as Warner is coming out of a meeting in Roanoke, ask him what he will do to attract new employment opportunities to Virginia. Then, when Gilmore is spotted, ask the same question. After a series of these questions are answered and recorded, assemble the virtual debate online.
You could even have the video clips or sound clips embedded next to the question.
While a virtual debate would lack the follow-up of a live debate, at least the People could see a side by side answering of the same question by both sides.
Here are some questions that I would like to have as a beginning of our virtual debate:
1. What have you done to ENHANCE our Liberty?
2. What have you done to create American jobs?
3. What have you done to reign in government back to within its Constitutional limits?
4. What is your plan to achieve American Energy Independence by 2020?
5. What reforms to the tax code will you make and are you in favor of eliminating the Income Tax for those who earn $50,000 or less, annually?
6. The War Powers Act was supposed to help end wars that were initiated by Presidential fiat. It has been ignored by every President since it became law in 1973. Will you support the modification of the War Powers Act to return the power to declare war, exclusively to Congress?
Both Keith and Gerry committed to a PWC Committee of 100 debate months ago. Keith needs to check out his schedule.
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