The Johnson County League of Women Voters is confused about the words “non-partisan” and “not political” and their concern for transparency in their candidate forums. (See the candidate forums online, or on local cable TV channels.) The JoCo LWV and Johnson County Community College sponsored these recent candidate forums.
The League is a completely political organization, supposedly interested in government transparency, but they declined requests to provide transparency about participation of their members in these recent forums.
The League should be commended for their public service in organizing these forums, but should be challenged about their use of JCCC government resources if they are not providing a level playing field to all candidates. This will be the first of several articles about the tilt in the JoCo LWV-JCCC candidate forums.
Somehow the LWV thinks it’s fair that one of the moderators is the president of a local left-leaning political organization? Somehow the LWV thinks it’s fair that one of the panel members asking questions, and his wife, serve with one of the candidates in another political group? Somehow the LWV thinks it’s fair they personally give to only left leaning candidates, and can still be fair and balanced with their questions to candidates? (And not all of the online forums have been studied yet.)
If the LWV members have nothing to hide, why did they refuse to reply to TWO requests for information to make the candidate forums transparent and fair to all candidates?
The following letter was sent on June 22 and June 28 by E-mail:
June 22, 2008
Ms. Paula Schwach (serenity_01@prodigy.net)
Voter Service Committee
League of Women Voters of Johnson County
1901 W. 48th Terrace
Westwood Hills, KS 66205Dear Ms. Schwach:
In the interest of full public transparency for the upcoming Primary Election Candidates Forum, and to avoid any potential conflicts of interest in the choice of questions to candidates, would the members of the JoCo League of Women Voters (LWV) and Johnson County Community College (JCCC) involved in this Forum be willing to disclose the following information over the past five years to both candidates and the public before their participation in the Candidates Forum?
• Political party affiliation, including changes in affiliation
• Money contributions to political candidates, PACs, and political causes
• Volunteer activities in support of political candidates, PACs, and political causes.
• Letters to editors endorsing candidates or causes
• Party offices sought; party offices held (e.g., precinct committees, district committees, state committees, national committees)
• Public offices sought; public offices held (city, county, state, national); appointments to government offices and committees
• Involvement with political issues and political positions held by the League of Women Voters
• Participation in the League’s observer corps, and issues of interest in those public meetings.
• Participation in, or development of, the League’s political position statements such as those online in the JoCo LWV newsletters http://www.lwvjoco.org/Voter.htm, your online position statement http://www.lwvjoco.org/lwvjoco_principles_outline.pdf, or your Local Position Handbook.Shouldn’t the public be fully informed about the personal, political backgrounds of those asking questions at the Candidates Forum? While the League may be non-partisan, the League is quite politically active and that political involvement could bias the questions asked at the Candidates Forums. Disclosure of the above information will provide full transparency to the public.
Thank you for helping make the Candidates Forum to be non-partisan, non-political and fully transparent to the public.
Sincerely,
efg
Editor, Kansas Meadowlark
http://kansasmeadowlark.com/Copies:
• Barbara Stillman bjstill@swbell.net (JoCo LWV president)
• Dr. Terry A Calaway tcalaway@jccc.edu (JCCC President)
• Jodie Dietze herbivore@kc.rr (LWV)
• Paula Corte paulak@jccc.edu (JCCC)
To date, no reply has been received from either the LWV or JCCC.
Tags: Candidate Forums, Johnson County League of Women Voters, Kansas Primary Election 2008
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.