Debate brings issues to students
Local candidates and students across campus are hard at work preparing for Thursday's political debates. The debates, sponsored by The Daily Illini and the Illinois Student Government, will be held Oct. 19 in the Pine Lounge in the Illini Union. At 6:30 p.m., incumbent Republican state Rep. Rick Winkel will debate his Democratic opponent, Tod Satterthwaite, mayor of Urbana. At 8 p.m., 15th Congressional District candidates Tim Johnson and Mike Kelleher will debate. Governmental Affairs Chair and senior in LAS Lindsay Hansen described the format of the debates. "The tentative format is pretty basic — six questions for each pair of candidates. Each candidate will be allowed a two minute response and then a one minute rebuttal," Hansen said. Between the two debates will be a half hour break. The debate is designed to be student-oriented, focusing on student issues and based on student questions. "Students can submit questions online via the ISG or Daily Illini Web sites," Hansen said. Kellie Larkin, spokeswoman for the Kelleher campaign, looks forward to the debate and believes the tone of the congressional debate will be a positive one. "It's important that people know what the candidates stand for so that they can make informed decisions," Larkin said. "We're running a positive campaign on the issues. It's certainly a comparative campaign, but it's a positive one." Satterthwaite looks forward to facing his opponent Thursday night. "I hope we'll get a chance to talk about issues of concern to students, as well as my background and what I've done for students as the mayor of Urbana," Satterthwaite said. Satterthwaite conceded that most of the students who attend the debate will already have made up their minds, but he said media coverage of the event will have an effect on undecided voters. "I certainly hope people pay attention," Satterthwaite said. "Even if there aren't that many people there, the way the media covers the event will help to differentiate between our opposing views." Students can submit questions for the debate at www.dailyillini.com or www.isg.uiuc.edu. |
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