October 11: The CW Twin Cities, Channel 23, Announces The First Commercially Broadcast Cardboard Cutout Governor's Debate/Forum In Minnesota's Political History

Politically undecided 18-34 year old voters meet at 9:00 p.m. Central Time.

Politicians ongoing demands for primetime, commercial TV time for political discussions has drawn CW Twin Cities to offer all four candidates running for governor in Minnesota an hour on Wednesday, October 11 at 9:00 p.m. Central Time to meet with politically undecided 18-34 year old voters. Absent from the panel will be candidates Governor Tim Pawlenty of the Republican Party and state Attorney General Mike Hatch of the Democratic Party, who have refused to participate. Instead, accompanying Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson and Green Party candidate Ken Pentel will be cardboard cutouts of Hatch and Pawlenty sitting in chairs with their Web sites placed on their life-like torsos.

By cancelling 47 forums and reducing the number of major debates from 22 in 2002 to seven in 2006, the standing governor and attorney general have severly limited public discussions in the election. Of the seven, only one is scheduled for broadcast on public TV, reaching a very limited audience in late October. Pawlenty and Hatch refuse to give any reasons for rejecting public or broacast events except to say one will not appear unless the other one does - resulting in campaigns boiled down to 60-second negative ads and very little public accountability.

James V. Gambone, political communications consultant for the CW Twin Cities and producer of the forum, says, "We are standing up for younger, disenfranchised, cynical voters who are tired of sound-bite campaigns that don't even appear on stations they watch or listen to. The CW Twin Cities is looking to other media outlets to join with them, to move younger people to action - to register and to vote. At a minimum, all candidates should be extending their reach to two generations that have not always voted in record numbers."

Gambone associates the decline in voting to an alarming national trend to limit public discussion - ignore younger voters and allow political campaign consultants to control public access to candidates running for important national and state offices.

The CW Twin Cities Gubernatorial Forum will be unscripted and include 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who take part in the national Kids Voting program. The Forum will be hosted by Tone E. Fly of B-96 FM, a very popular young radio personality in the Twin Cities and will air Wednesday, October 11 at 9:00 p.m. Central Time.

More information is available at www.thecwtc.com/free_to_vote/home_pg/index.shtml.
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   Political Communications Consultant
   The CW Twin Cities
   St. Paul,    MN,    55108
   USA
   651-646-2300 (phone)
   jgambone@wucw.sbgtv.com
   thecwtc.com