No District 1 Forum

Just got word today that there will NOT be a District 1 School Board forum before this years endorsing convention.  I'd be lying if I didn't say I was extremely disappointed, especially after getting my hopes up after initially hearing that both candidates had accepted.  I understand that there a 3 forums for all candidates prior to the convention but considering the longest of these is only 2 hours, that's hardly enough time to get anything but a small 'soundbyte' from any of the 13 candidates. 

I have an earlier email from the Marcia Thomas campaign that makes it sound like she was very willing, and almost eager to debate the issues in a District 1 specific forum.  All I received from the Arneson campaign was what I would call a questioning phone call, that was more or less attacking my view that there should be a forum. 

With the facts that I have laid out above, and without any official word, I can only infer that the reason we won't see this forum is because the Arneson campaign declined to participate.  I have my own opinions as to why a campaign would refuse to debate their opponent but I'll let the reader come to their own conclusions. 

I do plan to ask each candidate personally as to the reason there was no arena to compare our next representative on the Board side by side.  I don't anticipate that I get many straight answers as to the reason but it's worth a shot.  Also, because of the experiences that I've had with the Arneson campaign, you can expect to see me in a Marcia Thomas shirt at the convention.  Next step is to figure out how I might be able to get my hands on one of those.  Any ideas?

In closing, I have embedded my favorite political ad of all time.  I feel the Paul Wellstone Looking for Rudy' ad really speaks to this issue.  I only have one word for all of this, DISAPPOINTED!