Tuesday, August 04, 2009

McDonnell counter-proposal includes Blogs United

Bob McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor, sent Creigh Deeds, Democratic candidate for governor, a counter proposal today regarding debates.

McDonnell has agreed to four debates and asked to compromise on three more with Deeds - one of which is the Blogs United Debate.

"Virginia's bloggers play a key role in civic discourse in the Commonwealth," said Tucker Martin, spokesman for McDonnell. "[The 'Blogs United' debate] should be part of our debate schedule."

The debate will be hosted by the Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University at the Ferguson Center for the Arts. CPP is dedicated to unbiased and non-partisan research on public policy issues and the views of citizens about those issues.

The Virginian-Pilot
, The Daily Press, and Virginia Talks have also agreed to partner in the debate. Additionally, two television networks are interested in broadcasting the event statewide, and perhaps to a an even wider audience; details have yet to be finalized as to which network will carry the broadcast.

"This will be a 'Virginia first' - mere miles from the seat of our first representative government," said J.R. Hoeft, chairman of Blogs United. "By accepting this debate, both campaigns will clearly demonstrate that they are serious about taking the conversation directly to the people. We're grateful that the McDonnell campaign sees the importance of this debate and are looking forward to Senator Deeds also coming to that conclusion."