John Callahan (D-pictured left), Charlie Dent (R-pictured center) and Jake Towne (I-pictured right) are running to represent us in Washington for the 15th congressional district.
I am editing this post to included video footage of debates thusfar between our three congressional candidates for the 15th District of PA. Please watch the videos and pass this link onto others so that we can all make informed choices on election day. Please note: not all of these debates include the Independent candidate, Jake Towne, as he was not invited to all the debates (which I, personally, think is an atrocious miscarriage of our democratic process):
15th District Debate 10.13.2010 Courtesy WFMZ
15th District Debate 10.10.2010 Jewish Federation of Lehigh Valley
15th District Debate 09.13.2010 Callahan / Dent / Towne (Lafayette)
15th District Debate 10.13.2010 Courtesy WFMZ
15th District Debate 10.10.2010 Jewish Federation of Lehigh Valley
15th District Debate 09.13.2010 Callahan / Dent / Towne (Lafayette)
Who do you like best and why? Post your comments here!
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6 comments:
Well, I caught the last half, and it seemed quite aggressive. In general, it seemed to me that Dent was much smoother and more masterful at debating, but Callahan made great points on the Energy Tax question, pointing out that Dent does not want any severance taxes on Big Oil and Big Gas to pay for environmental disaster should something like the BP oil disaster happen here with the fracking of 50,000 new natural gas wells the industry is planning.
It really disturbs me that Jake Towne, the Independent candidate, was excluded from this debate. Here, below is a statement I received Oct. 9th from his campaign, indicating that Dent and Callahan never showed to two other debates that were set to include Towne:
"This week, both Mr. Callahan and Mr. Dent failed to show up at the second local debate in a row, which turned the evening into another forum for independent congressional candidate Jake Towne. While all three candidates will appear on this week's WFMZ-69 televised debate, Towne is excluded from the Morning Call/PBS/Greater Lehigh Valley of Chamber Commerce due to a skewed and openly biased poll. Towne is also excluded from a candidate forum tomorrow evening in Allentown.
Organizers of future debates such as the Nazareth Chamber of Commerce are finding it difficult to track down and obtain responses from the two career politicians' campaigns.
Two weeks ago, both Mr. Callahan and Mr. Dent did not show for a debate at Cedar Crest College in a crowded room. Mr. Callahan, who at first accepted the invitation, was instead attending a private fundraiser per his website.
While both Mr. Callahan and Mr. Dent may laud debates and democratic elections in public, the truth is that they wish to escape to November 2nd with as little scrutiny from the people as possible. Citizens should question these Establishment career politicians who do not deign to explain themselves to those they wish to serve. There is no higher responsibility of a candidate than to listen to the public and explain themselves.
In marked contrast to his opponents' escapism from economic reality, Towne spent a day last weekend volunteering with Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley, and served lunch in a Bethlehem soup kitchen as he has done once a week for the past half year.
Towne is a chemical engineer who worked in the semiconductor industry and resigned his job to abroad in Asia to return home and run for office as an independent private citizen. Towne has promised to accept only the median household income and not enlist in the congressional health care or pension plans. The remainder of the $174,000 salary will be donated to local non-profit hospitals. He also champions sound money and a novel-yet-simple form of accountable and transparent government, 'Our Open Office.'"
Jake Towne
610-392-8156
towneforcongress@gmail.com
http://towneforcongress.com/
Callahan is being wrongly portrayed by Dent and I don't know when the public will realize it. John is visionary and progressive. He has done a great job in Bethlehem. For example Dent says Callahan raisded his own salary 4 times. WRONG. City Council makes that decision not him. And the list goes on. There hasn't been a tax increase in Bethlehem ion four years but that's not what Dent is spendiong all of his big corporate dollars on. And the marcellus shale tax is a joke. Callahan knows we need to tax the large gas companies but not Dent. Time ot vote Dent out!
thanks for the post--it's good to parse this stuff out...so much bending of the truth goes on each campaign season...
The newest Morning Call poll on the rave has Callahan down 17 points. Had he run a campaign not run by the beltway crowd, he may have had a chance...very negative..
Anon 1:09--do you have a link to the poll you could post for us?
If it's a 17 point spread, it relieves the spoiler guilt factor for those who might be wishing they could vote for Towne to send a message on fracking for natural gas, but don't want to be responsible for throwing the race to Dent.
However, I would need to see those numbers to feel good about that. There is no greater threat to our way of life in PA right now than unregulated fracking for natural gas and its proven potential to contaminate our tap water forever.
if anyone makes a comment on these videos, it would be really great if you can note how many minutes in and which video it is that you're referring to, so that people can quickly reference the points commenters are making!
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