I was told that 5th District Democratic candidate Lawrence Gaughan was going to be there, and that Danville School Board member was going to a stand-in for Mark Warner. OK, I can live with that. I really didn’t expect US Senate candidates to come to a non-greed-to small event like this. Quite frankly, I was quite confident that Robert Hurt wasn’t ever going to attend this event because he had absolutely nothing to gain by being here.<\/p>\n
Fine. I’m going to go anyway. And here’s what we get…<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/PSsDLat.jpg?resize=640%2C507\")
<\/p>\n
I could easily caption this photo as “Lawrence Gaughan wonders why the heck he’s here, too.”<\/p>\n
Anyway, let’s bring on a Big Board and tell you why this was interminably bad…<\/p>\n
- \n
- I arrive, put my bag down and am asked “Are you with the Register & Bee”. No. No, I’m not. The Register & Bee isn’t going to cover this. In fact, if you relied on the Register & Bee for coverage of this 5th district race, you may not even know that there’s even an election this year.<\/li>\n
- The Danville Voter’s League (GAH! It’s not a single voter. Put your apostrophe AFTER the “s”.) actually goes over the rules for this forum, and they’re actually going to keep time for the answers to the questions. Why? There’s one candidate and one stand-in, and both of them are from the Democratic side. It’s not like there’s going to be any Republican response.<\/li>\n
- Each candidate introduces themselves. Even though Lawrence Gaughan is a huge underdog in this race, I’m going to give him credit for always being well-spoken and on topic with his message. Steven Gould’s introduction of himself on behalf of Mark Warner is actually better than Mark Warner was at the Institute last week.<\/li>\n
- Let’s get to the questions, and they’re going to come from the audience. All 15 of them. Hoo boy.<\/li>\n
- (These questions are paraphrased because my brain was already starting to shut down) “How many jobs will you bring back to the area if you’re elected?” Oh yeah, now that’s a question they can answer with a highly specific answer. “18,314” or something like that. Of course, Gaughan turns that question into an opportunity to talk about jobs and minimum wage increases… you know, his campaign’s talking points. Steven Gould does the same thing and again sounds better than Mark Warner could ever hope to.<\/li>\n
- “Where does federal money for education go to? Hey, that’s not a campaign question, but it’s not too bad. “How does local money get applied if students get suspended from school?” Facepalm. That’s not a federal issues question for a US Senate candidate. Luckily, we have a LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER up on the stage to answer a LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD QUESTION . My head is starting to hurt.<\/li>\n
- Cecil Bridgeforth asks how lottery money is allocated for education. Facepalm. Cecil Bridgeforth has been in local education. He should know that that’s a STATE issue, and nothing that a US Representative or Senator can control in the least. I’m sensing a need for a civics lesson. Luckily, we still have a LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER up on the stage to answer a LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD QUESTION.<\/li>\n
- By the way, Lawrence Gaughan is awesome when he says “That’s a great question” to these horrible questions.\u00a0 He sits back, lets Steven Gould answer the LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD QUESTION, then spins the question into something that he can talk about using his campaign positions.<\/li>\n
- About 35 minutes into this, I can’t take anymore of this. I am duty-bound to ask some real federal issue questions so I stand up and fire off three good ones to the stage. Finally, Gaughan and Gould get to show their understanding of federal issues and they knock the answers out of the park just as I expected. I actually get nods of approval for bringing this forum back to federal issues for federal candidates. By the time they answer the question, I’m actually starting to believe that Steven Gould is running for US Senator instead of Mark Warner.<\/li>\n
- We mercifully get to the end of tonight’s forum and I start to think maybe my head will stop hurting. WRONG! <\/span><\/strong>Cecil Bridgeforth reminds everybody that “The Danville Voter’s (sic – probably but I don’t care at this point)<\/em> League continues to be the political voice for the African-American community.” Yep. right. All 15 of them that showed up. Two older white people were there along with me. I’m guessing that the Danville Voter’s League doesn’t care about us crackers. Damn straight that pisses me off. It always has, and it always will. Danville will never be United with things like this.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
- Anyway, Bridgeforth pretty much urges the “crowd” to vote Democratic on November 4th. Wow, didn’t see that one coming. Hey, you want to know why Robert Hurt isn’t going to come to events put on by this organization? Well, duh. He had no chance at gaining any of these people’s votes and the president of the organization showed his Democratic bias. Bridgeforth didn’t act this way during the school board forum in May, as he was impartial then. This was shameful, but not unexpected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
That’s it. I’m out the door as fast as I can go. I learned my lesson… and you didn’t have to sit through this. We’re all winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I want that 90 minutes of my life back. Gah!<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[58,6,22,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-danville","category-eventscentral","category-opinioncentral","category-politicscentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-2NZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6795,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/19\/some-thoughts-about-todays-danville-city-council-forum\/","url_meta":{"origin":10787,"position":0},"title":"Some thoughts about today’s Danville City Council forum","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"April 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The five candidates for City Council got together today at Danville's Liberty Hill Baptist Church for a forum sponsored by the Danville Ministerial Alliance. Let's go to some random thoughts... It takes a lot of time to run for City Council. This was the third \"forum\" in a seven-day period.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EventsCentral"","block_context":{"text":"EventsCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/eventscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8448,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/27\/thumbs-32714\/","url_meta":{"origin":10787,"position":1},"title":"Thumbs! (3\/27\/14)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The red zone is for unloading only. The white zone is for Thumbs! Let's see what we have today... Let's just jump into the pool of Thumbs! Thumbs UP! to Scott Brooks and Showcase Magazine for pulling off Wednesday's City Council candidate forum on a short notice and making it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6739,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/10\/some-thoughts-about-todays-danville-tea-party-freedom-rally\/","url_meta":{"origin":10787,"position":2},"title":"Some thoughts about today’s Danville Tea Party “Freedom Rally”","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"April 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Danville Tea Party sponsored a \"Freedom Rally\" at Danville's Ballou Park today. Let's take a look at what happened using the infamous \"random thoughts\" format. It was a beautiful day for this rally with bright sunshine and 65 degrees temperatures. Our emcee for the day is Elmer Woodard and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5548,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/10\/some-more-thoughts-about-the-brew-fest-controversy\/","url_meta":{"origin":10787,"position":3},"title":"Some more thoughts about the Brew Fest controversy…","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I talked to Rosalee Maxwell & Heather Vipperman today about the Bright Leaf Brew Fest controversy. Now that we've heard the response from the Director of Danville Tourism, here are my thoughts on the matter. Thoughts... When people see an event like this, they don't know if the Danville Tourism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BusinessCentral"","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4972,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/10\/bob-mcdonnell-in-danville-tonight-at-the-institute\/","url_meta":{"origin":10787,"position":4},"title":"Bob McDonnell in Danville tonight at the Institute.","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"August 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"SouthsideCentral will be there LIVE! Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee for governor, will be at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research in Danville on Monday night. The event will be sponsored by the Sorenson Institute. The event runs from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM. 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- Anyway, Bridgeforth pretty much urges the “crowd” to vote Democratic on November 4th. Wow, didn’t see that one coming. Hey, you want to know why Robert Hurt isn’t going to come to events put on by this organization? Well, duh. He had no chance at gaining any of these people’s votes and the president of the organization showed his Democratic bias. Bridgeforth didn’t act this way during the school board forum in May, as he was impartial then. This was shameful, but not unexpected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n