SUMMER 2006 NEWSLETTER
GEORGIA FOI ACCESS
GEORGIA FIRST AMENDMENT CONSTITUTIONAL

GFAF, League of Women Voters, Common Cause, and AARP plan gubernatorial debate

By Tom Bennett

Lilburn, Ga., June 6, 2006 – The Georgia First Amendment Foundation, Georgia League of Women Voters, Georgia chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons and Common Cause are planning to co-host a Sept. 28 debate for political parties’ nominees for governor of Georgia.The place and time will be announced soon, and the sponsors are looking for a broadcast outlet.

The state’s political discourse was enlivened by the televised debates in mayoral to U.S. presidential races that occurred from 1988 to 1992 and were sponsored by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The same is true for the Atlanta Press Club/Georgia Public Broadcasting’s televised debates since then.

Races have turned on these events. All the decisive moments have come during inter-candidate questioning. Cathy Cox once stunned her opponent for Georgia secretary of State, and viewers as well, when she asked the opponent why he never had voted in a Georgia election.

Once when he was provoked by a sharp-edged query from his opponent for Georgia attorney general, Thurbert Baker turned and asked that man about tax liens against him. The opponent never denied the charge, and made a stammering reply.

Roy Barnes once asked his gubernatorial opponent, "How much of the hotel-motel tax comes back to local communities?" The opponent went blank for a moment and searched for an answer before Barnes broke in and said, "I’ll tell you, because you don’t know. ALL of the hotel-motel tax comes back to the local communities."

The temperature rises noticeably during the inter-candidate round of questioning. It is a feature that began in Georgia during the 1990 AJC gubernatorial debate series at the Sidney Marcus Auditorium of the Georgia World Congress Center, telecast on GPB.

Lincoln and Douglas, Kennedy and Nixon, they all stood and fought it out. Debates literally test how good people are on their feet. After all, by paying a filing fee and announcing their candidacies, these persons are claiming that they can perform capably under pressure.

Conversely, forums of persons seated at tables are more chats than debates. Often they result simply because the sponsoring groups don’t own podiums, and refuse to rent them. So the result is that as their events get started, and candidates lower themselves into chairs, the snooze factor goes up.

Moderators invariably are journalists, and Georgia journalists DO care about freedom of information. Yet a committee member’s suggested questions for candidates about FOI often have gone neglected. Following are suggestions for the ’06 debates.

SUGGESTED DEBATE QUESTIONS FOR GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES

1. What will you do to increase open government in Georgia after you have been elected governor?

2. Will you be ordering your chief of staff and press secretary to vigorously follow the Open Records Act, and set an example for all state departments to follow?

3. Do you support the resolutions in the General Assembly to make open government a part of the Georgia Constitution?

4. Describe what you have done during your political career to increase open government.

5. The General Assembly now is webcast. It can be seen anywhere on the globe by anyone having the Internet. In view of that, would you sign a law negating the antiquated Coggin v. Davey decision and making the General Assembly subject to the Open Meetings Act?

The Journal-Constitution successfully sponsored "Super Tuesday" chats among Democratic and Republican candidates for president on CNN in 1988, a year in which the Democratic National Convention was held at the Omni sports arena in Atlanta.

The following year, two AJC news managers traveled to Georgia Public Broadcasting’s then headquarters on Stewart Avenue in 1989 to propose working together on televised debates in Georgia constitutional offices. In that meeting, two GPB employees were cool to the idea. One amused the other by describing how he used the newspaper to line his birdcage. However, Executive Director Dick Ottinger agreed to the plan that Allen Hauck and I proposed. The annual televised debate series began. Now it is a familiar part of Georgia politics.

Tom Bennett of Lilburn is an AJC retiree and a volunteer for GFAF.