Third Congressional District debate scheduled

Published 6:00 am Monday, February 11, 2008

The nine candidates vying for Mississippi’s Third CongressionalDistrict seat have signed on for a series of four debates sponsoredby the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and theStennis-Montgomery Association at Mississippi State University.

James Broadwater, R-Flowood; Gregg Harper, R-Pearl; GregoryHatcher, R-Meridian; David Landrum, R-Madison; Billy Marcy,R-Meridian; Charlie Ross, R-Brandon; John Rounsaville, R-Madison;Randy Eads, D-Starkville; and Joel Gill, D-Pickens, will engage inpolitical speak in an effort to set themselves apart from oneanother.

The first debate will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, atthe Fine Arts Auditorium on the campus of Southwest MississippiCommunity College in Summit. All candidates except Landrum will beparticipating.

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The second debate will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 18, atGeorge Wynne Hall on the campus of Hinds Community College inPearl. Harper, Landrum and Eads will not be in attendance – theformer pair of Republicans have prior commitments at the MadisonCounty Republican executive dinner.

The third debate will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at KhalmusAuditorium on the MSU satellite campus in Meridian at 7 p.m. Gillwill be the only candidate not participating.

The fourth and final debate will be held on Monday, March 3, atColvard Union Ballroom on the MSU Campus in Starkville at 7 p.m.Ross is the only candidate not scheduled to appear.

The debates were planned and organized in barely two weeks.Lydia Quarles, the senior policy analyst for the Stennis Instituteof Government at MSU, said the idea began when candidateRounsaville sent a letter to the institute and requested that thedebates be held.

“We just kind of went from there,” Quarles said. “We decidedthat it would be a good idea and got to work.”

The institute is in familiar territory, as it often organizesand sponsors political debates. It sponsored a gubernatorial debatein November, and is looking into the possibility of holding adebate for the First Congressional District and the senatorialelection, where incumbent Roger Wicker will run against former Gov.Ronnie Musgrove and former congressman Ronnie Shows, later thisyear.

The Third Congressional District debates will be conducted in anonpartisan manner according to debate regulations established bythe Federal Elections Commission, the Federal CommunicationsCommission and the Internal Revenue Service, if applicable. TheStennis-Montgomery Association will ensure that each candidatereceives equal time and no favoritism is shown. The debates willnot assume the topic of a particular issue.

Each candidate will be awarded a two-minute opening statement, atwo-minute closing statement and will have no more than two minutesto answer a proposed question. The debate will last for at leastone hour but will not exceed two hours.

Sid Salter, perspective editor for The Clarion Ledger, willmoderate all four debates. Salter will be responsible for drawingup and submitting the questions to the candidates, and eachcandidate will receive an equal number of questions, though notnecessarily the same questions, a move designed to keep the debatesfair.

“It’s fair to say that some of the candidates may have the samequestion, but they won’t have it at the same time,” Quarles added.”That will keep the debate fair.”

The debates have another stipulation to keep the candidatessharp – no charts, graphics or any other props.

“We simply don’t want any of the candidates to be doing any sortof demonstrating or anything like that,” Quarles said. “We don’twant any of them relying on anything other than their wits and goodcommon sense.”

Quarles is expecting the candidates’ wit to be on display beforea good number of Mississippians at each of the debates, due to thecompetitive nature of the state’s political climate in 2008. Shepointed to the fact that there are no incumbents to defend theThird Congressional District seat.

“Mississippi folks just keep electing incumbents,” Quarles said.”But this year, with District One and three seats being open andwith Trent Lott’s Senate seat up for grabs in November … anyonewho ever wanted to run as a federal congressman in their lifetime,this is their year.”

The political climate on the national level is also affectingthe fervor of local races, Quarles said. With open seats inCongress and the close presidential race in the Democratic Party,she expects large turnouts at the institute’s debates, the stateprimary elections in March and the general elections inNovember.

“This is the most exciting single political year thatMississippi has seen in probably 40 years,” she said. “There willbe a lot of interest in who is running with whom, and I think folksare very interested in taking a stand one way or the other.”