The following letter was sent yesterday afternoon from
Mike Signer for Lieutenant Governor campaign manager Christian Rickers to the managers of
Jody Wagner's and
Jon Bowerbank's campaign. I think that asking for a lieutenant governor debate on the issues is a great idea, considering how little substantive debate there's been to date in the Democratic LG primary.
Dear Elisabeth and Jon-Paul,
Mike Signer believes in talking to voters directly about the most critical issues facing our Commonwealth. Even though we may have differences, I think we can all agree that the most important thing is to choose a nominee who's strong on the issues and who can defeat Bill Bolling this fall. For this reason, it's urgent to let voters hear from all of our candidates in a true debate format. Unfortunately, there has not been a real debate so far, and no debates are scheduled in the future.
Mike Signer would like to debate the other candidates in a “Lincoln-Douglas style” debate on public policy issues and the future of this Commonwealth.
We propose that this debate take place in Richmond. In addition to being the capitol of Virginia, Richmond is centrally located and would show no preference to any one candidate.
We understand that each candidate keeps a busy calendar and that finding a mutually agreeable date could be a challenge. However, given the importance of having at least one real debate on the issues to the Democratic Party and Virginia's voters, I'm sure that we can all make this a priority. To get the ball rolling, we propose five dates: Wednesday, April 29th; Monday, May 4th; Monday, May 11th, Thursday, May 14th; and Monday, May 18th.
Please let us know which of these could work so we can coordinate. We would be happy to work with you also to find an impartial moderator or panelists and forum.
Regarding format, we propose an impartial moderator and an impartial panel of three questioners. We propose a free-flowing discussion of public policy issues that would allow open discussion and debate between the candidates about their ideas and contrasts. We would leave the negotiation of particular debate details up to the moderator, the debate host, and the campaign managers of the respective campaigns.
Thank you for your attention to this proposal -- with a real debate on the issues, I think we can serve the Democratic Party and Virginia's voters well and truly take this campaign to the next level.
Sincerely,
Christian Rickers
