A few updates from Louisville's mayoral race are topped off with concerns from Jackie Green regarding his exclusion from the debate planned Tuesday night to be carried live on WHAS11.com and WHAS 11.2 from the Unversity of Louisville.
The debate organizers decided to create a relatively low threshhold for candidates to qualify to participate live at the debate. Anyone who polls five percent or higher in the WHAS11/Courier-Journal Bluegrass poll is invited.
If someone polls beliw five percent, that candidate is instead invited to record a one minute message to be shown during the debate. That is the case with all the candidates except frontrunners Greg Fischer and Hal Heiner.
Jackie Green campaign complains of exclusion from debate
As a representative of the Jackie Green for Mayor campaign, I have been requested by Mr. Green to personally contact WHAS11 Studios about the upcoming Mayoral Debate on Thursday.
It's the 21st century. People have cell phones. And Louisville citizens want more than the standard 2 party options. Yet, WHAS11 and the University of Louisville have chose to exclude Mr. Green from Thursday's debate. The problem with this is not only in that WHAS is bothering to use an outdated and stale form of polling, one that doesn't properly survey Louisville residents. But also- coverage is abound in Mr. Green's exclusion and the inherent unfairness this represents.
We hope WHAS11 & UofL change these levels of exclusion just as how past organizations have done.
This is clearly unjust and unacceptable.
Tyler Hess
Mayoral Debate
YPAL will host its own Mayoral Debate set to highlight issues important to young professionals on October 12. The debate will welcome mayoral candidates Greg Fischer, Jackie Green and Hal Heiner and will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Frazier International History Museum with a cocktail and networking hour beginning at 6:00 p.m. The event is open to the public. The event is free for YPAL members who register online. Ticket price for nonmembers as well as members who register at the door is $20.
“This debate will speak directly to Louisville’s young professionals and is our best chance to hear the candidate’s plans for the future as they relate to our generation,” said Emma Brown, YPAL Public Issues Director.
Americana Community Center to Host Mayoral Candidate Forum
Louisville, KY. October 10, 2010 – Americana Community Center, in Louisville’s South End,
will host its second Mayoral Candidate Forum on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 from 6:30PM –
8:00PM at 4801 Southside Drive. Candidates Greg Fischer and Jackie Green will be in attendance.
Americana Community Center’s first Mayoral Candidate Forum, on March 8, 2010 was a
resounding success. Eight of the twelve (at the time) mayoral candidates attended and addressed tough,
randomly-drawn questions, as well as fielding queries from an audience of both international and U.S.-
born Louisville residents. It is believed that the forum was the first multilingual event of its kind in
Louisville – it was simultaneously translated into Spanish, French and Swahili for the diverse audience.
As was the direction of the March forum, the issues discussed at the October 20th
event will
center on Louisville’s substantial international community. At this forum, the international community
hopes to have a compelling conversation with the candidates to impart the importance of prioritizing
their community’s needs. “These are very loyal citizens. They were not born here. They are here
because they want to be,” commented Terena Bell, the CEO of In Every Language translating and
interpreting services, which provided the interpreters for the March forum. Added Edgardo Mansilla,
Executive Director of host organization Americana Community Center, “People need to understand we
[internationals] are here to be part of one community…. We are part of a new reality.”
Through months of planning meetings, international leaders have arranged the upcoming forum
and compiled a document for the candidates to familiarize them with the key perspective of newcomers
– and new voters – in Louisville. Included in the document are a report on the contributions and
concerns of Louisville’s internationals, and a proposal to re-open the Office for International Affairs in
the city. The format of the October 20th
event will allow time for introductory remarks, a focused series
of questions from a moderator followed by timed candidates’ statements and rebuttals, wrap-up and
networking opportunities. Simultaneous interpretation will again be provided by In Every Language.
Americana Community Center provides services to a vibrant mix of refugee, immigrant and
low-income families, representing 75 different national and cultural origins. Americana Community
Center is a non-profit organization established in 1990. For more information on the organization, visit
www.americanacc.org.
Open letter from Independent mayoral candidate Jackie Green to Democrat mayoral candidate Greg Fischer.
9 October 2010
Greetings, Greg.
At Thursday’s mayoral event hosted by the Louisville Energy Alliance, I publicly thanked you for the shifts and improvements in your platform. Thank you for your immediate and affirming words in reply.
Those shifts in your campaign demonstrate responsible accommodation to changing realities - a faltering Ohio River Bridges Project, increasing oil prices, increasing public dissatisfaction with the JCPS student assignment plan, etc..
I invite you to consider the following measures to address a few inconsistencies and conflicts that remain in your platform/campaign.
The Fischer platform/campaign...
- talks about supporting the local food economy while supporting the destruction of local farms.
- talks about “jobs, jobs, jobs” yet has not seriously challenged our local economy’s dependence on Kentucky Coal.
- is prepared to let greenfield development diminish private investment, public infrastructure and metro services for all existing neighborhoods.
- maintains that we have the money to build 1) some unknown variation on the Ohio River Bridges Project and 2) a world class transportation system.
- talks about hiring local talent but hires a campaign manager from Rhode Island.
- talks about supporting local business but has a website developed by a Washington D.C. firm.
Greg, please work to resolve these conflicts, strengthening both your platform and your standing. Great leaders embrace needed change - even in policy.
The reality of limited resources (financial, material, natural, spacial, temporal, etc.) requires that we prioritize. Either/or scenarios are not ‘false choices’ as you suggest - rather, they tap our power to spawn innovation.
And finally, there is a definition of sustainability better than "productivity and diversity over time" - it is "meeting our needs without diminishing the ability of others, present and future, to meet their needs."
Grateful,
Jackie Green
Vote Jackie Green for Mayor
www.jackiegreenformayor.com
