Jack Conway, Kentucky Attorney General and candidate for the US Senate in the Democratic Primary, released a new television ad today, which focuses on the work he's done as AG to combat cyber crime. From a press release:
The 30-second ad features Mark and Donna Neblett, parents of Rachael Neblett, a victim of cyber-bullying, who tragically took her own life after repeatedly being bullied on the internet. The Nebletts describe how Conway worked hard to pass legislation that protects children from internet predators.
Following through on a promise he made while campaigning for the office of Attorney General in 2007, Conway also created a Cybercrimes Unit that investigates online solicitations of minors, scams and identity theft. The Cybercrimes Unit is now nationally recognized and has seized more than 46,058 child pornographic images and opened a Cybercrimes Lab to process digital and forensic evidence to help prosecutors and police, among other accomplishments.
Glad he has some type of accomplishment to brag about -- since he was unable to stop the local inequity/price fixing monopoly in Louisville, and since he expressed his displeasure with the Ky. Constitution for preventing retroactive punishment from being imposed on ex-convicts.
Nine of the candidates for Louisville Mayor met at duPont Manual High School this afternoon for another forum on the issues, this one sponsored by Manual's Young Democrats, Teen Republicans, and Independent Students Association and cheerfully dubbed “Apathy is Death.”
All the questions were submitted by students, then prescreened and chosen to be asked of the candidates. It seems that the original questioners or/and the prescreeners didn't do their homework (school pun count: 1), because two of the four questions asked (“Do you support the fairness ordinance?” and “What's your position on the bridges project?”) have already been addressed ad nauseam by everyone in the race.
The two new ones asked whether the candidates thought, almost eight years later, if the city-county merger was a good idea, and what their positions are on the JCPS student assignment plan and its associated system of busing, which the board of education now says needs changing.
None of the candidates could really give a grade-A answer to this one (school pun count: 2), but the one who explained himself the best was Jackie Green. He contended that the diversity achieved by busing isn't genuine diversity.
“Tell me which has more integrity,” Green asked. “Diversity created with a false transportation plan, or diversity created through having diverse neighborhoods?” In an answer that ran almost five minutes (compared with two to three minutes for everyone else), Green explained how diversity, housing, education, transportation, fuel costs, and sustainability are all connected when it comes to the school system, and did so pretty persuasively.
All of the candidates who have so far appeared publicly showed up to today's forum, except for Democrats Connie Marshall and Jim King (who missed his second forum in a row). Here are some other highlights:
Hal Heiner, talking to an auditorium full of high school students, sounded like he needs a remedial course in rhetorical public speaking (school pun count: 3). In his opening statement, he asked the student audience for a show of hands if, when they are Heiner's age, they hoped to be living in Louisville. Then he asked how many would want to live here if it was a better city. He counted an increase of about 20 percent, which was most likely attributable to the sympathy the students felt for Heiner thinking he had to talk down to them with a premise like that for his opening statement. (For the record, this talking-down-to from Heiner continued into the next question, when he thought aloud about how politically aware and involved most students were when the city-county merger was voted on 10 years ago—when current high school students were between 4 and 8 years old. What?)
The first spontaneous applause came for Lisa Moxley, who was the first candidate to say she was in favor of the fairness ordinance. Chris Thieneman, who answered the question first, said he opposed it because it didn't include enough people, such as the “heavyset” woman who first told him that she was a victim of discrimination because of her size. The students met that one with appropriate skepticism.
Democrats Greg Fischer and David Tandy were both copycats (school pun count: 4) in their answers to the question about student assignment. During Monday night's forum, Tandy had said in response to a similar question that too much “blood, sweat, and tears had been shed” in the struggle for black civil rights to reverse the student assignment plan. Today, Fischer, who answered the question before Tandy, swiped the line, saying almost exactly the same thing today: “A lot of people have shed a lot of blood, sweat, and tears over this issue.” Tandy spoke right after, and swiped one of Fischer's most oft-repeated phrases, the “both/and” setup: “It's either accept the student assignment plan we have or go back to the neighborhood schools—I believe there's a middle ground there called 'both/and.'
In lieu of closing statements, each candidate was asked what he or she would do on the very first day of office. No one said bring an apple (school pun count: 5), try and learn everyone's name (school pun count: 6), or throw a pizza party (school pun count: 7). Here's a list of condensed answers, in the order they were given:
Tandy: Economic development and creating jobs in town.
Green: Start work on a world class public transit system.
Heiner: Create a management group that is focused on growing jobs.
Republican Jonathon Robertson: Make government more efficient and high-tech
Democrat Shannon White: Start work on bringing the community together through affordable housing initiatives.
Democrat Tyler Allen: Meet with the rest of government to start thinking about what the right questions for the city are.
Thieneman: Audit the city's books.
Moxley: Make sure everyone's on the same page and has the same common vision.
Fischer: Start “doing” his “citizens' bill of rights” that outlines what services every citizen can expect from government.
All I can say is that the whole forced busing issue is a crock of shit. I grew up in Dayton, Ohio. There you have public schools who have districts. If 90% of students at a school are white or 90% of them are black, would be because that is the demographic that makes up the area. When you buy a house in Dayton, the school system is a factor. With school districts each school knows exactly how much money they will get from taxes collected. It is based on the homes that fall into the school district. In this area it is crazy that a child that lives in middletown has to be bussed all the way to preston highway.
7:06 p.m. It's another debate this week on Ed Springston's "My View Matters" radio show, this featuring candidates for Louisville Mayor Democrat Tyler Allen and Republican Chris Thieneman. Thieneman is the front-runner in the Republican primary, with 34 percent of likely voters supporting him, according to a C-J poll that came out on Sunday. Allen received 8 percent support in that poll.
In their endorsement interviews, the Courier's editorial board seemed to have it out for both of these candidates. They pressed Allen on the bridges project for about 40 minutes of the allotted hour, trying to convince him, it sounded, that his long campaign against the project was ill-informed. They also pushed Thieneman in his interview, asking for specific answers to questions they didn't seem to expect from the other candidates they've talked to. Springston's show is starting momentarily, I'll update when it gets interesting.
7:14 So far they've only talked about how great it is that both candidates are in the same radio studio doing this broadcast, having this conversation, discussing how best to run our city...but they haven't started discussing it! Just in time for a commercial break.
7:22 Here we go: Springston wonders why the Courier is picking on Chris and Tyler. It's like they're reading this blog as they do the show. First question: where do you stand on the bridges project? Allen: "I believe we need to build the East End Bridge now, then move on to everything else that's going on in this community." Thieneman also favors the East End Bridge. Now Allen's steering the conversation to tolling and the unelected nature of the bridges authority. Thieneman: "It's going to take leadership to stand up to these people."
7:31 Now we're into philosophical territory. What is the role of the Mayor in Louisville Metro? Allen thinks the Mayor should be developing political will, telling the city "not just where we are, but where we're going." Thieneman is talking about his adventures in Frankfort, where he's been fighting to decrease the scope of the Mayor's office. Now the conversation's shifted to partisanship in Metro Government, with Springston doing most of the talking. Let the candidates talk about their views.
7:38 Springston just said the great thing about these candidates is that they're not beholden to anyone and that they "don't give a shit." Allen spoke up, seemingly to point out that he does give a shit, which is why he's running for office. Now we're talking about Frankfort again, and its relationship with Louisville's leaders. Thieneman thinks Louisville's leaders treat their Frankfort colleagues like "little brothers." "Most of the citizens know who their city council members are more than their state Senator or their state Representative, even though their representatives in Frankfort are so much more important," he said.
8:20 Asked if he wanted to clarify Springston's comment about giving a shit, Allen said that he and Thieneman "both deeply care about this city." "You want a mayor that's not beholden so they can ask the right questions," Allen said. "Because if you ask the right questions, you get the right answers."
7:48 Education: Allen thinks that the mayor is in a position to change the city's education system indirectly, putting emphasis on education at a very early age. Allen thinks we should be "asking the right questions" as a city when it comes to education and preparing students for life after high school. Speaking of questions, Springston's asking if the candidates think KERA is necessary. Thieneman doesn't have much to say about that, but said he didn't think testing was the only way to measure achievement. Allen wonders if there's enough of a support system for young people in the school system. "It's critically important--even if institutions offer great resources, it won't mean a thing if students aren't in a position to take advantage of them," he said.
7:56 What's your plan for economic development? Thieneman: "We have to improve our tax rates." His thinking is that if occupational taxes are lower, more businesses will come to town, and the businesses that are here already will stay here. Allen thinks the problem is inflexibility, not necessarily the rates of taxes. He favors the local option sales tax, which would allow Louisville to tax differently to grow the right kinds of jobs in the right places in town.
7:59 Closing question. Could you work well together? Thieneman: "I've always said that you can win with Chris or Tyler." Allen, with 5 seconds left of airtime: "Yes!"
Great coverage, Rick. My inner-hoosier wants to point out Chris also vilified Hal Heiner tonight for taking jobs to Indiana. Tyler set himself apart from Chris on this issue. Tyler is a regional thinker. He's cool like that.
Anti-Indiana rhetoric is starting to really annoy me.
Once again I am grateful to John LaFollette and Louisville Mojo for live blogging our show. It has always been the intent of the MyViewMatters Radio Show to get the issues and candidates to the people and MOJO is allowing one more way for us to do that. We sincerely appreciate it.
I must add as well John brings up a good point. I did need to back off a bit and allow more talk from these guys. constructive criticism is important to me personally and I agree with the assessment.
I also owe an apology to the listeners for letting the S word come out. It was very unprofessional for our show and the listening public. What I write on my webiste is ne thing what I say on the air is another. I take full responsibility for this and offer my apologies.
Last night's mayoral forum had auspicious beginnings. Held at Meyzeek Middle School and hosted by the Louisville Urban League, Louisville NAACP, and Louisville Urban League Young Professionals, among others, the forum revolved around the concerns of the African-American community.
It was also the first time the candidates appeared together publicly since the Courier-Journal published the results of the race's first poll, showing Chris Thieneman leading in the Republican primary and “Undecided” leading Greg Fischer 32 percent to 20 percent.
The first question was unabashedly about the poll results, and asked the candidates, in light of those results, if they would consider dropping out of the race. And the candidates were called on to answer in the order of their position in the poll—starting at the bottom.
Shannon White, Lisa Moxley, and Connie Marshall (who all had poll support at 3 percent or less) all pledged, in some fashion, to keep their campaigns going. White likened it to the Iraq war, saying she and her supporters had invested too much to just drop it.
Moxley drew on her early experience with Barack Obama's presidential campaign, which struggled in its early stages. “I had a front row seat,” Moxley said of her involvement in 2007. “And we all know how that turned out,” she said.
And Marshall uncorked some of the venom everyone's been talking about. After describing herself as “an illegal electromagnetic assault and gang stalking victim of corrupt officials in Kentucky,” in her opening statement, she defiantly said she would keep her campaign going. “I'm not dropping out, we've got too much corruption,” she said.
The other non-leading candidates used the question to explain why they were running in the first place, saying that the political establishment “failed to inspire confidence” among Louisvillians (Tyler Allen, who had 8 percent support), and that “we don't have time to wait” for new leadership (David Tandy, 17 percent).
Fischer and Thieneman, ahead in their polls, exchanged one-liners. Thieneman asked if Fischer planned on dropping out. “It depends,” Fischer said back to him. “If you're the (Republican) nominee, I'll think about it.”
Then the questions got down to policy: How will you combat unemployment in Louisville, where unemployment is 10.5 percent and twice as high for black communities? What will you do to maintain diversity in the public school system? How would you create and sustain a source of revenue for affordable housing initiatives?
On the issue of jobs, Tandy said that rebuilding and improving Louisville's infrastructure with the downtown bridges and a system of light-rail trains would create thousands of jobs and make the city better suited for visitors at the same time. Fischer said that Louisville could be a national leader in the fields of local food production and senior care, both of which he said would create jobs in town.
On the issue of diversity in schools, everyone reaffirmed their commitment to it. Republican Hal Heiner (who was late to the forum from a Metro Council Budget Committee meeting) stood out on the issue, saying that the system of student assignment needs to be improved. “When you put a first grader on a bus for over an hour, we have a problem,” Heiner said.
Fischer predicted that some would try to overhaul the system, which he warned would “move us back into the dark ages.”
“There will be a movement by the so-called conservative movement to put people on the school board who want to get rid of the student assignment plan,” he said. “Fight that like crazy, please.”
The only time any candidate got much more than polite applause came during Tandy's closing statement, when his voice rose as he ticked off the laundry list of problems facing Louisville's black community.
“Why can't we be the type of city where every single neighborhood in our community is a vibrant, thriving neighborhood that has shopping, that has retail, that has a dry cleaner—I'm tired of having to drive all the way across town to find a dry cleaner west of 9th Street!” he said.
As Lyndon Johnson stated, "This is not a white problem, this is not a black problem, this is an American problem"
Lesse another take on things, our Constitution states. "That all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
We as Americans face grave problems across this great nation, regardless of race. We are supposed to be citizens judged on the content of our character, not the color of our skin.
Jack Conway, Kentucky Attorney General and candidate for the US Senate in the Democratic Primary, released a new television ad today, which focuses on the work he's done as AG to combat cyber crime. From a press release:
Nine of the candidates for Louisville Mayor met at duPont Manual High School this afternoon for another forum on the issues, this one sponsored by Manual's Young Democrats, Teen Republicans, and Independent Students Association and cheerfully dubbed “Apathy is Death.”
7:06 p.m. It's another debate this week on Ed Springston's "My View Matters" radio show, this featuring candidates for Louisville Mayor Democrat Tyler Allen and Republican Chris Thieneman. Thieneman is the front-runner in the Republican primary, with 34 percent of likely voters supporting him, according to a C-J poll that came out on Sunday. Allen received 8 percent support in that poll.
Last night's mayoral forum had auspicious beginnings. Held at Meyzeek Middle School and hosted by the Louisville Urban League, Louisville NAACP, and Louisville Urban League Young Professionals, among others, the forum revolved around the concerns of the African-American community.
John LaFollette