2007

Good day orangepolitics.org'ians!

I wanted to let you all know that The Peoples Channel has invited everyone in Orange County currently running for office to appear on our weekly flagship program, "TPC Weekly" hosted by myself. Each candidate is allotted 15 minutes to introduce themselves, talk about why they are interested in running and what they think the major issues are that OC community members face.

This is a great opportunity for the community to get to know the candidate outside of a forum or debate. The program airs 6 times over the weekend (see schedule) and is also posted to our web site at www.thepeopleschannel.org/candidates.htm

I understand that some candidates reading this may not have gotten my e-mails… and I can't explain that one. I wrote to everyone that had an e-mail address filed with the County, and then made follow up phone calls. I'm pretty much a one man outreach operation here, so if I've missed anyone, don't hesitate to contact me. We still have slots open!

At this time a couple years ago there had already been two forums and an endorsement released in the Chapel Hill Town Council race. It's been comparatively quiet this year, although the forum season is about to heat up.

One candidate who to date was pretty much a mystery fired an opening salvo against the Town Council today. Matt Czajkowski had a half page ad in the Chapel Hill News on Sunday which criticized the Council for:

-Lacking a 'true voice' for fiscal responsibility

-Lot 5

-Its unfriendly reputation toward commerical enterprise that 'keeps businesses from even trying to open here.'

-A Franklin Street that is 'nowhere close to what it 'should and can be'

His ad was long on complaints and short on solutions. There was no statement about what his plans would be to deal with any of these problems or what relevant experience he had for fixing them. I would have liked to go to his website to find out but he doesn't seem to have one.

The Orange County Board of Elections will be deciding on Tuesday, August 7th on whether to move the one-stop early voting site from UNC's campus to the Seymour Senior Center off Homestead Road.

We have the following objections to the proposed move:

1. The Seymour Senior Center creates a significant impediment to voting for students, faculty, staff and the many community members that live/work in and around downtown.
2. Moving the site away from campus will adversely impact student engagement in the upcoming election.
3. With the passage of the same-day voter registration bill, more students are likely to vote this fall. Moving the site will hurt these efforts.
4. If we want to encourage students to take an interest or an active role in their community, we should not making voting inaccessible to many who cannot make it to the Seymour Center.
5. Many faculty and staff that work on or near campus benefit from having a central voting site on campus.
6. A better location can be found that will benefit both students and residents of Chapel Hill.