Thursday, August 17, 2006
Bill Scheurer's Press Release on Debates
Moderate Party candidate Bill Scheurer (Lindenhurst) and Republican candidate David McSweeney (Barrington) have both called for televised debates to occur with or without Bean’s participation.
“I’m willing to face both or either of my opponents in an open debate,” Scheurer said. “Let ABC, CLTV and WTTW set out an empty chair for Bean. The chair will remain open for her, anytime she wants to join in the democratic process, and expose her views to the public.”
While Scheurer and McSweeney both favor open debates in each of the 24 townships in the district, so far, four is all Bean will allow.
Private forums will be hosted by the Northwest Suburban Alliance for Commerce and Industry in Cook County and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce. The NorthWest News Group will hold a small public forum in McHenry County. A fourth limited forum, not mentioned in Bean’s press release yesterday, will be hosted by the League of Women Voters in Lake County.
Bean has required each forum to conform to a lengthy list of conditions, carefully designed to avoid true debate and personal exposure.
Her list includes 10 conditions that limit public participation, nine conditions that limit public and media exposure and six conditions that limit true debate with the ability to question or respond to questions.
“Bean’s conditions, such as allowing only 250 people to attend each venue, protect her from exposing herself to the voters at large,” Scheurer said. “Her chair might as well be empty, if she is only willing to expose herself to 1,000 out of 300,000 voters.”
Media access and dissemination is also tightly limited. Bean’s conditions forbid audio or video recording by anyone but “officially credentialed” media.
Recording is almost a moot issue, with Bean also excluding broadcast of the entire program. It is unclear as to who decides what portions of each “debate” may be revealed to the public.
“This is the kind of sham ‘debate’ one might expect in an incumbent, one-party system,” Scheurer said. “If Bean had her way, this ‘debate’ would include two empty chairs: mine and McSweeney’s.”
Scheurer challenged not only Bean and McSweeney, but also major television outlets to provide an open debate format so voters could be better informed.
“How can voters exercise their right to a real choice, if they don’t know what the choices are?” Scheurer said. “All she wants to do is let them eat ‘canned Bean’ with big TV ad campaigns.”
To return to McHenry County Blog, click here.
“I’m willing to face both or either of my opponents in an open debate,” Scheurer said. “Let ABC, CLTV and WTTW set out an empty chair for Bean. The chair will remain open for her, anytime she wants to join in the democratic process, and expose her views to the public.”
While Scheurer and McSweeney both favor open debates in each of the 24 townships in the district, so far, four is all Bean will allow.
Private forums will be hosted by the Northwest Suburban Alliance for Commerce and Industry in Cook County and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce. The NorthWest News Group will hold a small public forum in McHenry County. A fourth limited forum, not mentioned in Bean’s press release yesterday, will be hosted by the League of Women Voters in Lake County.
Bean has required each forum to conform to a lengthy list of conditions, carefully designed to avoid true debate and personal exposure.
Her list includes 10 conditions that limit public participation, nine conditions that limit public and media exposure and six conditions that limit true debate with the ability to question or respond to questions.
“Bean’s conditions, such as allowing only 250 people to attend each venue, protect her from exposing herself to the voters at large,” Scheurer said. “Her chair might as well be empty, if she is only willing to expose herself to 1,000 out of 300,000 voters.”
Media access and dissemination is also tightly limited. Bean’s conditions forbid audio or video recording by anyone but “officially credentialed” media.
Recording is almost a moot issue, with Bean also excluding broadcast of the entire program. It is unclear as to who decides what portions of each “debate” may be revealed to the public.
“This is the kind of sham ‘debate’ one might expect in an incumbent, one-party system,” Scheurer said. “If Bean had her way, this ‘debate’ would include two empty chairs: mine and McSweeney’s.”
Scheurer challenged not only Bean and McSweeney, but also major television outlets to provide an open debate format so voters could be better informed.
“How can voters exercise their right to a real choice, if they don’t know what the choices are?” Scheurer said. “All she wants to do is let them eat ‘canned Bean’ with big TV ad campaigns.”
To return to McHenry County Blog, click here.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 1:02 PM
