howard coble

At least one thing I saw from last night's Blue NC Democratic gubernatorial candidate 'debate' is that these innertube-type debates are really self-generating and self-replicating. It happens in real time, in black and white (or whatever the electronic equivalent is), and then traditional media types (tip o' the hat to Laura Leslie and Ryan Beckwith) come out of the lurkosphere to participate, elaborate and pontificate. Does that have a bigger impact than a "live" debate, even one where the questioners are newspaper reporters, but their employers don't deem the event sufficiently newsworthy for next-day coverage?

I guess that's the old 'if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest' conundrum.
But I've been personally interested since I'm the putative moderator at our 6th Congressional District Democratic Candidate Debate in Asheboro this Thursday night, and I've searched online for coverage of last week's comparable debate at Guilford College, and haven't found much.

and it's in Asheboro, in our new headquarters building at 125 South Church Street, across the street from the new Farmer's Market.

The three candidates competing for the Democratic nomination in the Sixth District U.S. House race will debate at least twice in the next few weeks.

Teresa Sue Bratton of Greensboro, Johnny Carter of Summerfield and Jay Ovittore of Greensboro have all agreed to participate in debates to be held in Greensboro and Asheboro; a third meeting may also be scheduled. All will be open to the public at no charge.
The first round will take place on Tuesday, March 25, at 8 p.m. in Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Auditorium of the Frank Family Science Center at Guilford College.

The second debate will take place Thursday, April 3, at 7 p.m. at the Democratic Party Headquarters for the Randolph County Democratic Party, 125 South Church Street, Asheboro.

Mac Whatley, Chair of the Randolph County Democratic Party, will moderate.

This coming Thursday evening, from 7 to 8 p.m., Teresa Sue Bratton will live-blog here at BlueNC. She will run against Jay Ovittore in the Democratic Primaries and they are both running for the seat that Howard Coble (6th Congressional) currently occupies. Please visit her website and leave questions if you won't be able to attend.

Last Wednesday, Yes Weekly conservative columnist Jim Longworth took one of the many attacks I received from the Right-wing attack machine that has apparently put its target on my back. Misinformation and quoting to fit their propaganda was the order of the day.

First let me back up a little. I received a call from N&R reporter Mark Binker about a story he was doing on my opponent's age and tenure in the US House of Representatives. I answered his questions via phone and he wrote this article. On January 2nd a well formulated right wing attack is launched in several areas, all regarding my quotes from the article.

It seems the right wing pundits want to see my primary opponent and not me in the general election. They assure themselves another 70-30 blowout facing him, they fear the unknown and my "not the usual politico" self in a battle facing me. I am in this to win and that is what I plan to do.

Here is Longworth's original attack column. Click through and read it. It's a hoot!

I was offered the opportunity to write a rebuttal to Longworth's piece by Yes Weekly and I did.

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