Further Debate Issues

At our debate meeting this past Wednesday the representative for the Mayor, Ed Fouy, indicated that they had been talking with channel 4, channel 5 and a Fox/Herald combination in addition to the NECN/Globe/WBUR/WGBH group that we had the meeting with.

After the meeting I spoke with Yoon and Flaherty's people who said they had not been contacted by other TV sources. As I traced the story further yesterday, some of the other sources (after reading my blog) thought they were being shut out by the 4 candidates, which couldn't be further from the truth. It seems as if they somehow had the impression that Mr. Fouy was the debate person who was going to schedule things for all the candidates. Again this couldn't be further from the truth as Mr. Fouy had never spoken to any of the other candidates despite the fact that Yoon, Flaherty and I had been trying to set up a meeting with him for weeks.

So, long and short of it---the three challengers want debates, Mr. Fouy does not speak for us, and if you are a news source, community group, ward committee, neighborhood association or what have you, please contact the candidates to set up some forums in your neighborhood.

I for one, will debate anyone, anytime, anywhere. Not just debate in an adversarial way, but discuss ideas to improve civic life. The City deserves an open discussion about the future. It will be good for the City to get many thoughts and ideas circulating to make our great town of Boston even better.

My email to Mr. Fouy:

Dear Mr. Fouhy,

In speaking to some media sources other than the consortium that we spoke to on Wednesday it seems as if they somehow had
the impression that you were speaking on behalf of all candidates to set up dates and times for debates. As you know that is not the case, as you have not been in contact
with us and Mr. Menino's campaign refuses to even provide a phone number for you so that we may contact you.

If you are negotiating or talking to the other TV stations about debates without including the other candidates I hope you will at least
inform them that you are acting solely on behalf of the Mayor and not on behalf of any of the other other candidates.

Again, I look forward to meeting with you at whatever time and place is convenient to you to talk about debate issues.

Thanks,
Kevin McCrea