U.S. Senate Candidates Share Views at UK
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 17, 2009) - Nearly 200 students, faculty and community members joined six of the nine candidates running for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky on Wednesday, Nov. 4, for at least part of a 90-minute public forum on public policy issues at the University of Kentucky.
Four of the five Republican candidates and two of the four Democratic candidates attended the forum, and a seventh candidate offered his ideas over the phone to the overflow crowd in the Great Hall of the Margaret I. King Building.
Buck Ryan, director of the Citizen Kentucky Project of UK's Scripps Howard First Amendment Center moderated the event.
Each candidate was asked to answer three questions in one minute: "Who are you?", "Why are you running?", and "Why should we vote for you?" Later the candidates were asked to respond to "The Citizen¹s Agenda" of key problems facing Kentucky and to offer solutions.
The candidates who attended the forum were:
Bill Johnson, a Republican and an international businessman from Florence, Ky.
Brian D. Oerther, a Republican and a math teacher at an alternative school in Louisville, who lives in Frankfort, Ky.
Rand Paul, a Republican and an ophthalmologist from Bowling Green, Ky.
Darlene Fitzgerald Price, a Democrat and a counter-terrorism expert from Whitley City, Ky.
Maurice Sweeney, a Democrat and a community business leader from Eastwood, Ky.
Roger Thoney, a Republican and an engineer and economist from Highland Heights, Ky.
The eighth-annual forum held in conjunction with a freshman Discovery Seminar Program course invited all nine candidates as part of a class research project.
One candidate who could not attend, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, added his ideas over the phone. Grayson, a Republican, lives in Boone County, Ky.
Two Democratic candidates unable to attend were Jack Conway, Kentucky attorney general from Louisville, and Daniel Mongiardo, Kentucky lieutenant governor and a surgeon from Hazard, Ky.
In his opening remarks, UK Provost Kumble Subbaswamy thanked the candidates for being there to inspire UK students who might be future candidates for public office.
The Citizen Kentucky project, which began in 2001 with an award-winning hour-long KET program, "Citizen Kentucky: Democracy and the Media," is designed to engage young people in civic life.
The Citizen Kentucky public forum was live Webcasted on Wildcat Student TV from the Great Hall of the Margaret I. King Building. Check the program schedule to see when the event will air again at www.uky.edu/WildcatStudentTV.