David Hall accepts, awaiting Cooper's reply.
The Nashville Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) has requested that David Hall and Jim Cooper participate in a 5th Congressional District candidates forum at a breakfast hosted by NWPC on Friday, October 29 at The Mad Platter Restaurant.
The event would be a forum type event rather than a real debate. Each candidate would be given five minute for an opening statement and then answer questions from a moderator to be followed by questions from the audience. It is unknown if the event would be open to the public and the press or would only be for NWPC members.
The NWPC asked the candidates to respond to the invitation by the close of the business day tomorrow, Wednesday, October 6. I have spoken to the Hall campaign and they have accepted the invitation and look forward to the chance to engage in a public forum with Congressman Cooper.
Jim Cooper has been conspicuously absent from public appearances where he would have to take questions from the public for almost a year now. During the summer, when Congress was debating Health Care legislation, Cooper refused to hold any town hall meetings.
Last Wednesday night there was a scheduled candidates forum sponsored by the Haywood Lane Neighborhood Association. In announcements promoting the forum, both Jim Cooper and David Hall were listed as participants. Jim Cooper failed to show, reportedly due to a conflict in scheduling. At the same time as the candidates forum, Cooper was serving as honorary chairman of a pricey Dinner of the Bridge event to raise funds for Nashville Greenways.
I will give Cooper the benefit of the doubt and assume the Dinner on the Bridge event was a prior engagement and the announcement that Cooper would be a participant in the Haywood Lane Neighborhood candidates forum was in error. Now, there is another chance for Cooper to redeem himself and face the public and share the program with his Republican challenger David Hall.
Due to space limitations and the time of the forum, this event will be seen by few people and Cooper will be appearing before an audience that will probably ask few hard questions. Nevertheless, this will be the first time that Cooper and Hall have shared the same program and it is better than nothing. I would hope that during this campaign there would be a real debate, open to the public and perhaps televised and in a venue capable of holding a large audience.
There are major philosophical differences between David Hall and Jim Cooper. The public deserves the opportunity to hear the candidates debate the issues. Jim Cooper needs to stop hiding out and face the public.
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Cooper wasn't the only candidate hiding from his competitors during this campaign. Hall did plenty of hiding himself. It would have been nice to see Hall so quickly respond to the invitations to share the stage with his GOP opponents.
ReplyDeleteCooper has begun rolling out his commercials. Is he talking health care? Nope. Is he talking about stimulus? Nope. He's giving himself a pat on the back for the great work he did after the May floods. Going after the Corps of Engineers for their gaffes at Percy Priest is one thing. There was absolutely nothing that could have been done to prevent the massive flooding on the Harpeth River. That always seems to be ignored.
ReplyDeleteHall, on the other hand, is rolling out ads showing him driving AND talking to the camera. Has he been calling folks like Jackie Miller and Miglietta asking them to drop out of the race?
Jackie Miller and Miglietta NEED to drop out of the race. All of the other 3rd party candidates do to. Jackie Miller has been going around putting up signs on David Hall's rd. Why? Can anyone answer me that? Those are David Hall people, and they are not going to vote for Jackie Miller just because she put up a couple of signs out by Whites Creek HS.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion any one running, at this point, as a 3rd candidate is not about getting rid of Jim Cooper, but it all about themselves. The focus of this election must be about helping the country. It must be about the spending going on in Washington to which Jim Cooper has been a big party to. He has voted with Pelosi 91% of the time. Easy to check out. His voting record tells it all. A 3rd party candidate is giving votes to Cooper. I am sure he loves that. Remember, A VOTE FOR ANYONE OTHER THAN DAVID HALL, IS A VOTE FOR COOPER.
ReplyDeleteJust for the record, DAVID HALL, is a Great Candidate, a Conservative, believes in the Constitution & he will give us a voice in Washington. Something that Jim Cooper hasn't done in a long time.
I do agree with lesstressrx, regarding anyone else running. besides the Incumbent and David Hall, is simply self serving. At this particular junction in our country, it is more important to get rid of Cooper than anyone exercising there rights to run. We must align ourselves behind a better goal of defeating Jim Cooper, and voting for David Hall. Getting rid of Cooper is one more step to getting rid of Pelosi. Our country is at stake and these other candidates are jeopardizing it.
ReplyDeleteLesstressrx:
ReplyDeleteIs that how you felt during the primary with 11 candidates in the race? Which ones running were just "all about them"? Would you have told them that a vote for Miranda or Scott or Schwartz or Ries or Tarum or whomever was a vote for Hall, or Hartline, or Heil? You can't have it both ways so stop complaining. If Hall wants those votes, then he can campaign to get them, just like he did during the Primary. If you think the circumstances are different, then explain that to the runners-up in the Primary. If the Party wanted the race to be about getting the best candidate in the Primary, then they could have made that happen along the lines of your reasoning. But they didn't because the people who ran had the right to run. So does any Independent candidate in the race now.
(Note how the Democrats are able to make sure that they have only one substantial candidate in House Primary races all over the country.)