Ashe,
Gooch praise their candidates
By Dorothy Bowles
Moderator Frank Cagle set simple
ground rules for the SPJ presidential “debate” on Oct. 23: no
sighing, snorting or ear biting. With that admonition, Mayor Victor Ashe,
Republican national convention delegate, and Warren Gooch, Democratic
Party East Tennessee chairman, spent the next hour presenting the positions
of their respective party’s nominee.
Questions about familiar campaign issues, including public service experience,
the environment, taxation and education came from Mark Harmon, assistant
professor of broadcasting at UTK, Jesse Fox Mayshark, Metro Pulse editor,
Cagle, News-Sentinel managing editor, and audience members. Drawing clear
distinctions between Al Gore and George W. Bush, both Gooch and Ashe sought
to emphasize the merits of their party’s candidate.
Although the debaters disagreed
on most policy matters, they found mutual ground in addressing questions
about politics in general. Both disputed the notion that citizens are
disaffected with politics because the major parties don’t offer clear
choices this election year. Ashe said he thought both Bush and Gore were
good men and that the “silent majority” of yesteryear no longer
existed. Gooch agreed that the majority of voters like the choices in
Campaign 2000, asserting that dissatisfaction with the political system
today is specific to the under-30 age group. As a way of encouraging citizen
participation and recruiting candidates, Gooch noted with approval the
mayor’s suggestion that local elections be conducted less frequently.
A question about campaign financing elicited similar comments from Gooch
and Ashe, each deploring the negative impact of the estimated $2.6 billion
cost of the 2000 presidential campaigns. Gooch attributed skepticism of
the electorate and candidate recruitment difficulties in part to the huge
cost of mounting a successful national campaign.
Turning their attention briefly
from the national campaign, Ashe and Gooch each challenged the local media
to cover local elections more thoroughly. Ashe said it became a self-fulfilling
prophecy if local media ignored a particular campaign on the assumption
that one candidate was “unbeatable.” In answer to Cagle’s
observation that some local races aren’t newsworthy because they
aren’t competitive, Ashe pointed to the election success of previously
little known City Commissioner Danny Mayfield. The mayor’s assertion
that Metro Pulse ran Mayfield’s phone bank drew a denial from panelist
Mayshark.
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