CARY INVITES CITIZENS TO CALL THE QUESTIONS FOR CARY’S FIRST RUNOFF CANDIDATE FORUM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13, 2009
CARY, NC – Now through October 19, Cary citizens are encouraged to submit questions to be considered for Cary’s Runoff Candidate Forum, which will invite candidates for District A of the Cary Town Council and the Wake County School Board District 2 to answer questions from Cary citizens. Questions should be e-mailed to cary@ncvotered.com. There is no limit on the number of questions any one Cary citizen can submit for consideration, and citizens are encouraged to ask questions that cover the wide variety of topics that face elected officials serving them.
“The success of the Cary Community Candidate Forum depends in large measure on receiving lots of good questions from voters, so we hope Cary citizens will take just a moment to let candidates know what’s important to them by sending in questions right away,” said Town of Cary Public Information Officer Susan Moran.
The runoff forum, which will be held on October 20 in the Cary Town Council Chambers, will be recorded and played throughout Western Wake County daily on the Town’s government access channel—Cary TV 11— through November 2 and available on the Town’s Web site. The Cary Community Candidate Forum is the first and only forum for candidates for local office sponsored by a Triangle local government and the only forum for local offices cablecast on Cary TV 11.
Sponsored by the Town of Cary, the forum is managed on behalf of the Town by the NC Center for Voter Education (NCCVE). As forum manager, the NCCVE receives, reviews, selects, and reads questions to candidates for the first time during the forum.
The NCCVE is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to informing and involving citizens so they may fully participate in democracy. The Center has hosted and moderated a number of forums giving candidates an opportunity to debate issues in a constructive format, including a series of forums that aired statewide on UNC-TV in 2006 and 2008. The NCCVE is a leading resource for unbiased candidate information, using its voter guides, online radio station, media partnerships and statewide syndicated column to give candidates from all political persuasions the opportunity to communicate directly with 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
Reducing the amount of politics and bias potentially brought to the forums by outside sponsors
The first Cary Community Forums were held in the fall of 2003, followed by subsequent ones in 2005, 2007 and 2009. For more, visit Candidate Forum at www.townofcary.org.
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PRIMARY CONTACTS:
Damon Circosta, NCCVE, (919) 783-8811
Susan Moran, Public Information Officer, (919) 460-4951
April Raphiou, Deputy Public Information Officer, (919) 481-5091
October 13, 2009
CARY, NC – Now through October 19, Cary citizens are encouraged to submit questions to be considered for Cary’s Runoff Candidate Forum, which will invite candidates for District A of the Cary Town Council and the Wake County School Board District 2 to answer questions from Cary citizens. Questions should be e-mailed to cary@ncvotered.com. There is no limit on the number of questions any one Cary citizen can submit for consideration, and citizens are encouraged to ask questions that cover the wide variety of topics that face elected officials serving them.
“The success of the Cary Community Candidate Forum depends in large measure on receiving lots of good questions from voters, so we hope Cary citizens will take just a moment to let candidates know what’s important to them by sending in questions right away,” said Town of Cary Public Information Officer Susan Moran.
The runoff forum, which will be held on October 20 in the Cary Town Council Chambers, will be recorded and played throughout Western Wake County daily on the Town’s government access channel—Cary TV 11— through November 2 and available on the Town’s Web site. The Cary Community Candidate Forum is the first and only forum for candidates for local office sponsored by a Triangle local government and the only forum for local offices cablecast on Cary TV 11.
Sponsored by the Town of Cary, the forum is managed on behalf of the Town by the NC Center for Voter Education (NCCVE). As forum manager, the NCCVE receives, reviews, selects, and reads questions to candidates for the first time during the forum.
The NCCVE is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to informing and involving citizens so they may fully participate in democracy. The Center has hosted and moderated a number of forums giving candidates an opportunity to debate issues in a constructive format, including a series of forums that aired statewide on UNC-TV in 2006 and 2008. The NCCVE is a leading resource for unbiased candidate information, using its voter guides, online radio station, media partnerships and statewide syndicated column to give candidates from all political persuasions the opportunity to communicate directly with 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
Reducing the amount of politics and bias potentially brought to the forums by outside sponsors
The first Cary Community Forums were held in the fall of 2003, followed by subsequent ones in 2005, 2007 and 2009. For more, visit Candidate Forum at www.townofcary.org.
###
PRIMARY CONTACTS:
Damon Circosta, NCCVE, (919) 783-8811
Susan Moran, Public Information Officer, (919) 460-4951
April Raphiou, Deputy Public Information Officer, (919) 481-5091
