Howe to Easley and Ballantine: don't debate!
Barbara Howe, in separate letters to her gubernatorial opponents, Gov.
Mike Easley and State Sen. Patrick Ballantine, has asked the two to refuse
to participate in an upcoming debate sponsored by the Education:
Everybody's Business Coalition until the Coalition issues an invitation to
her to participate.
In her letter of September 9, Howe writes, "Obviously, it is
disingenuous of an organization to sponsor a debate claiming that
education is everybody's business and then exclude one of the qualified
candidates."
Howe is the Libertarian candidate for governor. The Libertarian party
is a legally recognized political party in North Carolina, having
completed an onerous ballot drive to be allowed to run candidates in North
Carolina elections. There are 10,907 registered Libertarians.
Additionally, there are some 946, 622 NC citizens who choose to
register unaffiliated. "So, if education's everybody's business, why does
this coalition choose to ignore 18 percent of the North Carolina
registered voters by presenting only the Republican and Democrat
candidates in their debate?" Howe asks.
"Obviously this is a partisan show, designed to give the public only
part of the information they need to make an informed choice on November
2. It's an insult to the voters of North Carolina. I hope my opponents
will heed my request and not participate in such a sham."
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