Columbus City Council Q&A Audio
Submitted by Jerid on Tue, 10/09/2007 - 7:24pm.
The audio from the blogger session with Columbus City Council Candidates is online and available here.
To be honest, it was difficult to have the type of interaction I've witnessed with other blogger-candidate sessions because of the sheer number of candidates we had sit down at once. Still, it was an amazing opportunity to hear a lot about the state of the city and it's future directly from those that have had a hand getting it to where it's at now.
Also, bonobo from Blue Bexley has got a post up regarding his take on the event. It's pretty good:
All 4 of the Council Members present were competent and impressive, but I was especially impressed with Council President Mentel. He took my first out-of-the-blue question (the city has explicitly stated that it wants to be more competetive for major conventions and meetings - what are the near term projects supporting that goal?) and listed off direct and indirect actions being taken by the city. It wasn't the content so much as the confidence. Later, when asked about the strategy of running against one-party-rule, a tack being taken by some of their opponents, Andrew Ginther gave an answer much like I might, saying that the issue has never really been one party rule, that the problem was corruption, and that one-party-rule was basically necessary but not sufficient for corruption, etc. Mentel took the mic and said Democrats have a long and excellent record of stewardship of this city. Columbus is the success story of the Midwest. He is proud of what Council has accomplished, he is proud to work with the Mayor as a partner, and he is proud of the teamwork on the Council. If that's what the Republicans say they want to change, let 'em run on that platform.
Dang.
Well put.
Lib Only?
Submitted by Jerid on Wed, 10/10/2007 - 6:58pm.
I'm not really sure which slant everyone there goes, but most of them weren't as overtly political as some of the Ohio blogs we're used to interacting with. It was however by invitation (although some folks I didn't know showed up, and they were more than welcome to join in).
Unfortunately I didn't slide an invite your way. Afterall, you haven't been the most civil guy in the 'sphere, especially towards me and my family. I figure it's probably a better idea to limit our encounters, especially since I still think you're a pretty big DB (in the personal sense, not even political).
Progressive Talk radio and Howard Dean
Submitted by paper ballots now on Wed, 10/10/2007 - 11:42am.
Too bad talk radio content didn't get discussed. Howard Dean said ProgTalk had an effect on the Ohio elections in 2006. Talkers such as Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, RFK, Jr and Thom Hartmann could influence public opinion in a progressive direction again if they were heard in Columbus and other Ohio cities.
Frankly, I have found it curious that the FCDP and ODP seem so disinterested about the issue of talk radio ever since Cincy, Columbus and Akron lost their Prog Talk stations due to Clear Channel's political decision to drop it and see each stations' ratings drop. Prog Talk is a like a 24/7/365 advertisement for Dems instead of one and done campaign ads that end up in the hands of conservative media owners.
1580 WVKO-AM was leased to a Latino group which also is leasing WVKO-FM. The Central Ohio press has been oddly silent about WVKO-AM's new all-Spanish language and Mexican music format. WVKO-AM used to be the Voice of C(K)olumbus Ohio (VKO). Now not so much. The Columbus market now has 3 Spanish language stations.
lib bloggers