CARY INVITES CITIZENS TO CALL THE QUESTIONS IN THE 2007 CANDIDATE FORUM

New this year, citizens can submit more than one question

CARY , NC – Starting today, Cary citizens can submit questions for the 2007 Cary Community Candidate Forum, which will be held on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 in the Cary Town Council Chambers, 316 N. Academy Street in downtown Cary .  Since only questions from Cary citizens will be considered, questions must include the author’s name and street—building number is not necessary. The deadline to submit questions is Friday, August 31.

For the first time, Cary citizens can submit more than one question to the forum’s manager, the N.C. Center for Voter Education (NCCVE), which is responsible for reviewing all of the questions and selecting the ones to be used in the forum.  Those questions will be read to the candidates for the first time during the forum.  Neither questions from anonymous sources nor questions from the forum’s live audiences will be considered.

Cary citizens can submit questions via US Postal Mail, email, or by fax to:

ATTN: Cary Forum

N.C. Center for Voter Education

19 W. Hargett St .

Suite 310

Raleigh , NC   27601

(919) 839-1231 (fax)

caryforum@nccve.org

Please do not send questions to the Town of Cary .

Races included in this year’s forum are: candidates for Cary Town Council Mayor as well as one At-Large seat and districts B and D.  Wake County School Board seats that represent Cary will also be included:  districts 5, 6, and 8

Sponsored by the Town of Cary and managed by the NCCVE, the Cary forum will be taped on September 12 before a live audience and played daily on Cary TV September 22-October 8.  The forum will also be available on the Town’s Web site, www.townfocary.org.

The North Carolina Center for Voter Education is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality and responsiveness of North Carolina 's election system.   The Center has hosted and moderated candidate forums including the 2006 judicial candidates’ forum. The forum, aired statewide on UNC TV, gave candidates for North Carolina ’s state appellate courts an opportunity to debate issues in a constructive format.  The Center has a reputation as a platform for unbiased candidate information.  In past elections, the Center has used its external communication capacity (podcasts, radio show, media releases and a syndicated column) to give candidates from all political persuasions the opportunity to disseminate information directly to voters.

The idea of the Town’s hosting a forum dates back to the fall of 2001 when a record number of candidate forums sponsored by special interest groups were cablecast on the Town’s government access channel, Cary TV 11.  Complaints about that situation led the Town Council to ask staff to develop alternatives.  After nine months of research, which included meetings with past forum sponsors, staff recommended in August of 2002 the concept of one large  “mega forum” – now known as the Cary Community Candidate Forum.  Benefits of this approach include:

• Allowing for increased community focus and involvement

• Eliminating the issue of candidate endorsements

• Providing a better product for viewers

• Reducing the amount of time candidates and Town staff spend in forums

For more on the first and only forum for candidates for local office sponsored by a Triangle local government, visit Cary Community Candidate Forum at www.townofcary.org.

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