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The Citizen to print 3-week political forum

Dear political candidates and the voting public:

The Citizen will print a candidates’ forum for three consecutive weeks just before the Nov. 8 elections to allow an unfettered (except for word limit) dialogue among candidates for all local contested races.

The Citizen invites candidates to participate free in this opportunity to communicate your position to the voting public.

The details:

The limit for each candidate’s initial e-mail essay and two subsequent e-mail responses is 400 words per essay. This will be strictly enforced, even to the point of cutting off a thought in mid-sentence, once the 400-word limit is reached.

All essays and responses must be received by the deadlines below via e-mail. Those received after deadlines will be omitted.

Send all essays to editor@TheCitizen.com. Make the essays the body text of the e-mail message, NOT an attachment.

No hard copies of any kind, please. Faxed, printed, hard-copy submissions will be discarded. Submissions received as Word attachments or in any form other than the body text of the e-mail message will be discarded.

Candidates who decline to participate according to the rules detailed above will be listed next to the participating candidates as “Declined to participate.”

We will publish the first candidates’ essays Oct. 19, grouped by contested race. Candidates, please supply a high-resolution facial photograph for use with your essay.

All candidates may respond in the second and third weeks as they choose. Each candidate may rebut opponents’ statements in the two subsequent weeks.

Except for profanity and clearly libelous statements, the content of the responses will be edited ONLY for punctuation, subject to the strict 400-word limit.

We encourage a free-wheeling debate among candidates on the issues involved in the contested campaigns.

Deadlines are as follows:

Essay 1 (Oct. 19 publication): Final version of your 400-word e-mail essay must be received at The Citizen no later than 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 13.

Essay 2 (Oct. 26 publication): 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 20.

Essay 3 (Nov. 2 publication): 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27.

These rules and deadlines are fixed, regardless of intervening circumstances.

Citizens, encourage your candidates to participate in this free three-week political forum.

Candidates, don’t disappoint your supporters by failing to participate in this printed debate for the benefit of all your constituents, free to you.

Cal Beverly, publisher
The Citizen
Fayetteville, Ga.
editor@TheCitizen.com
(The above is 398 words.)