Wednesday, October 29, 2008

S.T.O.P. Coalition Candidates Forum Tonight

Last February I attended a candidate’s forum sponsored by S.T.O.P., a coalition that opposes extending the Grand Parkway as a toll road south from where it ends at US 59 here in Fort Bend County. It was a crowded stage with multiple candidates for the same office – obviously – because it was a pre-primary forum.

Well, S.T.O.P is reprising its sponsorship of another forum, this tima a pre-general election candidates forum, tonight, October 29th. On the tenth day of early voting. Yes, as I type this, over 90,000 Fort Bend County voters will have cast their ballots at the early voting locations.

So that was a small SNAFU.

A SNAFU because I wonder what the chances would have been that more candidates would have appeared had the forum taken place before early voting started.

Because as it stands, it appears that of all the candidates running for Fort Bend federal, state and local offices, only eight have agreed to appear.

At the top of the ballot, Nick Lampson will square off against his Libertarian opponent John Weider. Dorothy Bottos, the Democrat running for HD 28 will have her words unanswered as John Zerwas is passing on this forum. However, Democratic incumbent Dora Olivo will be on stage with her Republican challenger, Steve Host. It would be interesting to see if there is anything behind Host but his ubiquitous campaign signs.

Andy Meyers, unopposed on the ballot for Precinct 3 County Commissioner, has also agreed to participate. For what reason I cannot possibly fathom. Perhaps it’s because there will be nothing on TV for him to watch since Barack Obama has preempted every television broadcast tonight except for the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.

And finally, Democrat Richard Morrison will attend, as will his opponent Greg Ordineaux. Last time they shared the stage, the incumbent, Tom Stavinoha was the chief target. The one to beat. And beaten he became. This time we have Morrison, a vocal opponent of Section C of the Grand Parkway, who will square off against the ex-treasurer of the Fort Bend Toll Road Authority, Greg Ordineaux.

This would be an interesting match up, as Ordineaux, a once fervid supporter of the Grand Parkway extension as a toll road, is now firmly against it . . . too. Or maybe not. We’re not really sure.

Maybe someone can find out for me how this all turned out because I just (as in 30 seconds ago) got a call asking me to come to the headquarters for more Get Out the Vote activity so . . . oh well. Priorities, priorities.

Too much to do, so little time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Correction: Dr. Zerwas attended the forum while Mrs. Bottos was a no-show.