Petrelis Files

No League of Women Voters Debates in SF
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
(Cross-posted from our campaign site.)
 

We've accepted an invitation from the nonpartisan League of Women Voters to participate in two crucial activities during the fall campaign season, starting with sitting before a camera and teleprompter to create an important video outreach instrument that is of great assistance to our DIY Democracy alternative candidacy.

Here is the first activity the LWV has organized for all Supervisorial candidates:

"This [video] initiative, in partnership with SFGOV-TV, is fair and neutral, and will provide you with an excellent platform to communicate
your message.

"'Meet the Candidates: Board of Supervisors' will air on San Francisco’s public, educational, and government access
cable channels, and will be made available on the internet through SFGTV’s website, as well as the League’s Website www.lwvsf.org.

"The program will contain five-minute statements from Candidates for the local Board of Supervisors’ races. Each statement will be
placed in the order in which it was taped, and aired multiple times before the November Election."

The second LWV activity is a candidate meet-and-great on October 23 at the Nissan/Infinity car dealership building on Van Ness Avenue. Our campaign will have the opportunity to engage with District 8 voters, the general public, members of the media and the business community.

We're very much looking forward to engaging with the LWV members and their network during these two components that enhance San Francisco's democracy, however, it's disappointing that the organization has no debates of any sort on their agenda before the November 4th election.

Our wonderful city and civic engagement is greatly diminished that the 2014 fall elections will take place without a single debate happening, as far as we know, in any Supervisorial race or over the various ballot propositions.

How did San Francisco reach the point where a fall vote happens and the voters and candidates are denied the opportunity to debate each other? It's troubling just asking this vital question but it must be raised and we wonder what your answer is.

Thank you, League of Women Voters, for your invaluable work!