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Lake Anne resident and political analyst
Catch the Reston Candidates Forum
Reston viewers will get to meet the candidates for Congress from the redrawn 11th District on Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 8:00 p.m. on Comcast Community Television, Channel 28.
The Reston Citizens Association and local public affairs program Reston Impact once again are co-sponsoring the Forum as they have for 14 consecutive years. It will be their 30th televised Forum for local, state and federal elections.
Candidates participating in the live Forum include Republican candidate Col.(Ret.) Chris Perkins; Independent Mark Gibson, and Green Party candidate Joe Galdo. For the first time in the history of the Forum, a candidate has declined to participate. Incumbent Democrat Gerry Connolly dropped out after over a month of back-and- forth contacts with organizers. Connolly's scheduler says he was too busy to participate in the Reston Forum.
The forum uses a classic format, with candidates making brief opening and closing statements around a question-and-answer segment featuring questions posed by Reston area journalists representing the Connection Newspapers, the Fairfax Times and Patch. Forum moderators will be Colin Mills, President of the Reston Citizens Association (RCA) and myself as Host/Producer of Reston Impact.
Following the 2010 national census, Reston was redistricted out of the 8th District represented by longtime Rep. Jim Moran in order to add some Democratic-leaning territory to Connolly’s 11th District. Connolly won re-election to a second term by a whisker in 2010. Following the 2010 elections, Virginia agreed to adjust all of it districts to make them safer for incumbents for the coming decade. Mr. Connolly got Reston in the deal.
It came as a surprise that he chose to skip Wednesday’s Reston Forum given his newness to the community, now part of the 11th District. It could be that Mr. Connolly is taking Reston for granted. Other candidates, who are campaigning in Reston and taking the trouble to articulate their public policy positions on websites (e,g, www.gibson4congress2012.com, www.perkins2012.com ), seem to think that Connolly’s failure to meet them face to face in Reston plays in their favor with an electorate seeing them the first time.
Tune in Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. on Comcast Channel 28. There may be some surprises. If you don’t have Comcast cable service at home, go to www.rctv28.com anytime after Thursday, Sept. 13. When you are on the site, select Shows, Reston Impact, and see the Forum in its entirety on the web.
Tammi Petrine
2:19 pm on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Wow! Connolly dissing Reston debates really IS a shocker!!! Or is it?
Maybe it IS time to reconsider allegiance to politicians who are not making Reston voters their first priority... I, for one, am plenty sick of being neglected and taken advantage of in favor of poorly planned schemes such as the financing of the Silver Line which will devastate our community for 40 years at LEAST unless something is changed immediately. Not one of our elected officials, INCLUDING CONNOLLY has done ANYTHING substantive to correct an inexcusably abusive escalating tax on Restonians and other corridor residents and commercial enterprises.
The attitude of Fairfax County's Board of Supervisors, our state and Congressional reps seems to be that Reston is a part of the county ripe for plunder! Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! We're gettin' ours while Restonians are asleep at the switch.
Well, we're starting to wake up and we're hopping mad. And maybe we should just start pulling switches at the ballot box, especially for someone so arrogant that he is too busy to show up for a debate! Sayonara, Mr. Connolly.