Local politicians are experts at avoiding public debate – especially during election years.
Leading candidates and the special interests that back them increasingly roll their campaign dice on a one-way conversation with voters, overwhelming local mail boxes, YouTube videos and Facebook pages with political junk mail.
Ask yourself – regardless of political affiliation — whether that’s the best way to vet local leaders we expect to ethically manage billions in federal, state and local taxes aimed at protecting our collective quality of life?
That was my challenge earlier this month to a coalition of Orange County nonpartisan, nonprofit leaders gathered together just after the Primary election with public interest lawyers, media leaders and OC Registrar of Voters officials to talk about the walk up to November’s General Election.
Orange County needs real debates.
Face-to-face, real time public discussions among candidates on hard public policy issues.
Nonprofit leaders strongly applauded the idea – a similar reaction to when I presented this challenge last fall while addressing the League of Women Voters conference in Irvine.
Yet all these civic leaders – many volunteers – acknowledge how tough it is to get leading candidates to commit to debates.
For our part, with leadership from longtime OC columnist Barbara Venezia and the rest of the Voice of OC board of directors, we’re going to relaunch the Feet to the Fire Debate series.
We are inviting a host of local groups like the League of Women Voters, local nonprofits, labor and business groups along with local colleges and universities to join us as co-sponsors with the aim of creating – at minimum – one central debate series in OC.
Given today’s technology, this Feet to the Fire series will be virtual.
The aim will be to focus on key election races and extend broad-based invitations to candidates for frank discussions about the agencies they want to lead.
Voice of OC will sponsor the debate series on our YouTube channel.
“Looking at the political landscape in OC, now – more than ever – we need debates like Feet to the Fire,” said Venezia after a recent Voice of OC board meeting, where directors supported the idea of reviving the longtime debate series that produced nearly a dozen televised community theater debates in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.
“Now all I have to do is dig out those flame leather pants,” she joked, referring to her outfit worn during the debates, ”and hope they fit.”
Venezia, a longtime local columnist and board member for Voice of OC, launched the first Feet to the Fire series back in 2010 when she was an OC Register Columnist.
For several election cycles, she gathered Register and Daily Pilot reporters along with me to grill local candidates on stage in Costa Mesa.
The Feet to the Fire debates – or F2F as residents dubbed it – were impactful as numerous candidates had both good and bad moments.
Voters got to see raw honesty and emotion as unscripted candidates had to think on their feet, which was quite revealing about their grasp of the issues and what their concepts about solutions could be.
For starters, the format didn’t follow the traditional boring debate set up.
The production approached local elections as a chance for frank conversations, generating a talk show approach toward local issues.
Feet to the Fire panelists asked common sense questions which explored issues that were in the news. Some candidates felt they were “hard” questions and struggled with impromptu answers revealing their lack of knowledge.
Meanwhile, others shined.
Venezia was the driving force as the producer behind Feet to the Fire and when she retired from journalism, F2F seemed to retire with her.
In ensuing years, it seems to me that leading candidates in key races across OC have seemingly made a pact to avoid any kind of debates.
It’s a rare thing these days to see any local candidates sit down for a frank conversation about their plans, backgrounds or conflicts.
Anywhere.
Not at the local labor union, nor at the business groups or at the local university.
We can all change that.
We’ll be extending invitations out to the main candidates across Orange County covering key races for Congress along with state, county and city offices.
We’re also listening to readers who want to email us suggestions for races to cover, questions to ask.
Stay tuned.
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