Sorry, no Mayoral Forum for you!

Well, it looks like the major mayoral candidates have finally decided to put an end to the never ending churn of mayoral forums.  I've been hearing some grousing from various people who are upset that their group is not getting to hold a forum.  Yesterday, I had that confirmed.

Basically, it works like this:  The mayoral candidates have been going to forums at the pace of 3 to 6 a week.  At some point, you're talking to the same group of already engaged voters who belong to different organizations.  So, recently, as confirmed to me by several campaigns, the staffers for Gene Locke, Peter Brown, and Annise Parker got together and decided they will have to reject some forums.  But no one wants to reject one without knowing if the other candidates are going to show up, so they are now deciding together.  Witness what happened this week to the Montrose Area Democrats. (M.A.D.)

In the email circulated by Carl Whitmarsh, M.A.D. had to cancel their forum:

 the major mayoral candidates have gotten together and agreed to only do certain mayoral forums. Every candidate has been invited to do so many forums they simply can’t do them all. They they got together and decided on which ones.  As a result, the Greater Heights Democrats and other organizations are sending out emails like the following, where preplanned mayoral forums are being canceled.  To be fair, the candidates are already doing about 20 forums a month, so they believe it’s plenty.

"We have received a form letter from the Brown, Locke and Parker campaigns canceling their participation in the Montrose Area Democrats (M.A.D.) Mayoral Debate, scheduled for this Friday, September 18.  Without candidate participation, M.A.D. must now call off the debate itself.  The debate was to be held at St. Stephens Episcopal Church hall and would have been free and open to anyone who wished to attend.
 
We are deeply disappointed by the three campaigns' decision not to honor their commitments, both verbal and written.

So, how do the campaigns decide which organizations get a forum?  Basically, they look at the size and makeup of your audience.  If the staffers decide the attendees of your forum likely already attended another forum, you get the big cancellation.  Actually, the strategy makes sense.  The major candidates are still doing 20 forums in September alone, so it's not like they're saying no too often.  In addition, the forum reaches too few new people. The candidates may be better off spending their time holding up campaign signs at the corner of Post Oak and Westheimer.  I'm kidding, sort of.

So, if you got a mayoral forum lined up in the next 45 days, you better give the campaigns a call.  Let's hope you're not on the cancellation list.

Comments

[tired dog]

would love to see them standing on the corners or under the freeways...forums are boring, bring on some free wheeling debate...the so-called top three are damn near dopplegangers regarding CoH policy, oops, triplegangers I'd guess, and the fourth guy is nowhere to be seen. bring back outlaw Jose Wales, hell, pick anyone from the phone book for a better result.