From the inbox:
Forum Houston Enriches Rice Education (HERE)
Speaker: Robert Stein – Moderator
Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science
Rice UniversityDistrict 18 Congressional Political Forum Monday, February 22, 2010
6:00 PM to 9:00 PMRice Memorial Chapel RMC/Ley Student Center
Rice University
6100 Main St
Houston, Texas, USAAn open forum for 18th Congressional District candidates. The Houston Enriches Rice Education (H.E.R.E.) Project is an innovative curricular and research initiative that advances Rice’s relationship to the larger Houston community and enhances faculty research and both undergraduate and graduate education. The H.E.R.E Speakers Series advances understanding of Houston’s impact on national issues of religiosity, social justice, political equality, etc, by inviting noteworthy figures to give public lectures on related topics.
A map of the campus, which has a “find a building” feature, is here. Events like this are great opportunities to hear what the candidates are saying, so check it out.
Will this forum include Brenda Page, John Faulk and Tex Christopher?
I don’t know. What you see is all the information I have.
The Faulk Campaign will not be attending this event.
When we were first contacted by the HERE project about attending we were concerned about the extremely biased format. When I called in and spoke to the HERE representative about our concerns I was told that the moderator had told them that a Republican can’t win CD18, and therefore they weren’t going to be given equal time or opportunity to address the audience. Instead he wanted the Republicans to come and participate in a meet and greet prior to the forum and then sit at the feet of the Democrats while they conducted a candidate forum without any input from the Republicans!
After my initial discussion with the HERE representative I was told that my concerns were valid and were being addressed and that all 6 candidates would indeed be participating in the candidate forum. (3 Republicans and 3 Democrats on the stage together) I was told to go ahead and advertise the event to our supporters because we would be given equal time…when I hadn’t received anything from HERE this week, I called on Friday morning to discuss the format of the event, and was told that it was being changed back to it’s original biased format. I was told the reason for this is because at least one of the Democrats had threatened to pull out of the event if the Republicans were allowed to fully participate.
If the HERE Project wants to host events that are fair and impartial, we’d love to attend…until such time, we are not interested in participating.
Truly,
Creston Inderrieden
Campaign Manager
Faulk for Congress