No Machesney president debate
1 comment March 10th, 2009
I would have liked to do a live stream debate with the candidates for Machesney Park village president, but Thomas Strickland, who upset Linda Vaughn in the primary, declined my invitation for him to debate Joseph Terrell.
I first offered the invitation right after Strickland’s primary victory and called him again today to see if he had reconsidered. He said no. He will not debate Terrell because Strickland says Terrell was untruthful about the transparency in government pledge.
Strickland said he and Terrell exchanged e-mail on the subject. Strickland said he asked Terrell how much transparency would cost. Terrell e-mailed back that costs would be minimal. Strickland says his reply was “is minimal $10 or $10 million?” Strickland says he didn’t get an answer to that question.
Later Terrell issued a press release that quoted Strickland saying “I can not support your transparency in government pledge at this time. The people of Machesney Park can not afford any more increased costs in government. You should be looking at cutting costs, not adding costs for the residents.”
I told Strickland that during a debate he could refute anything his challenger had to say, but he again declined, saying he intended to run a clean campaign and would not debate Terrell anywhere.
I asked Strickland if he would be appearing at any candidate forums and he said he hadn’t been invited to any yet. If he does attend a forum, I said I’d talk to him then. Meanwhile, the editorial board will take a look at his answers to the questionnaire that was sent by the news side.
Terrell was disappointed that he wouldn’t get a chance to debate. He said he’d debate in front of a cardboard cutout if that were his only option.
I told both candidates that the editorial board is not going to do individual interviews this election. We’ll contact them by phone, e-mail or other forums if we have any questions.
Strickland, who’s running as a Democrat, beat Terrell in the 2005 Republican primary for village president.
