Two deaths in Congress earlier this year have left open two Republican seats that will be filled in Dec. 11 special elections — one in Ohio and one in Virginia. Ed Morrissey of Heading Right Radio interviewed both GOP candidates this week.
Ohio state Rep. Bob Latta is running to fill the 1st District seat left open by the death of Rep. Paul Gillmor. Twenty years ago, Latta ran for that seat when his father retired after 30 years in Congress but lost the primary by 27 votes to Gillmor. Latta has served in the legislature since then but will be term-limited out of office this year.
“Unfortunately, term limits does not add stability to the system,” Latta said in a recorded interview when quizzed about that subject. “We lose a lot of folks that have great knowledge in certain areas … in the legislature.”
Morrissey also interviewed Rob Wittmann, who is running to replace Jo Ann Davis in Virginia’s 1st District.
Producer’s note: Through a partnership with BlogTalkRadio, AirCongress is promoting federal policy and political content produced by the company’s Internet-based talk-show hosts.
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was first out the gate with his answers to nine of the 10 questions posed by voters at the 10Questions.com online video forum co-sponsored by AirCongress and numerous other sites. The only one he hasn’t answered involves reducing the size of government.
The No. 1 question as chosen by 10Question users focuses on “network neutrality,” a term used to describe the push for a government mandate on communications network owners to treat high-speed Internet content equally.
“We can look at the Internet kind of like we do an Internet highway,” Huckabee said in response to the question. “Everybody has a right to get on that highway; everybody has a right to put his or her vehicle on it, whether it’s the big 18-wheel truck or whether it’s a motorcyle. And we need to make sure that access is affordable and that there is a clear path for every person to be able to utilize these resources ”
Here’s a link-heavy guide to the other nine questions and Huckabee’s responses:
The first round of questioning at 10Questions.com, a site co-sponsored by AirCongress that is collecting video queries to present to presidential candidates, is about to end. You have one day to ask your question.
The results so far: 188 questions and 92,500 votes from 27,000 voters. The top videos so far are about “network neutrality” and whether America is “unofficially a theocracy.” Activists on both of those issues have heavily promoted the questions. The third question is about “non-religious voters.”
The rest of the top 10 questions, as of now, cover: medical marijuana, wiretapping without warrants, transparency in government, “corporate personhood,” campaign reform, the voting system, and the two-party system.
So far, Democrat John Edwards and Republican Ron Paul have committed to answering the top 10 questions. If you don’t like the list, go vote and do your part to change the line-up.
TechCrunch today added John McCain to its list of blogger “gets” in the Republican presidential field, interviewing the Arizona senator about the activities of technology firms in China and visas for high-skilled foreigners, among other topics.
The interview with McCain followed one several days ago with Mitt Romney, one of McCain’s rivals for the GOP nomination.
Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine sees TechCrunch’s series of interviews with presidential candidates as a noteworthy milestone for new media.
“It’s just a blog. It’s just a tech blog,” Jarvis said. “But it’s powerful and has an important audience in a critical industry. So candidates are paying attention. That and 10Questions and the YouTube debates are evidence of a political process that’s just beginning to open up.
Next on TechCrunch’s list is Democrat John Edwards, but he apparently agreed to only a written question-and-answer session with the tech Web site. How very 20th century of him.
Ed Morrissey of Heading Right Radio aired his pre-recorded interview with Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani during his live show at a new media conference in Las Vegas. Here are excerpts from Giuliani:
“We have to maintain a feudal government [in Pakistan], but we have to push [Pervez] Musharraf to do two things”: restore the constitution and the rule of law, and root out the Taliban and the al Qaeda terrorist network. “So there’s a big agenda with Pakistan, and it has to be handled very delicately.”
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has been guilty of “a great deal of double-talk.” She “has had six different positions on Iraq; she won’t answer a question on Iran. … And [she] can’t give a straight answer on driver’s licenses? If you can’t do that, I don’t know how you can deal with these more complex issues.”
“I’m really the only candidate that has a chance of beating Hillary in those places [New Jersey and Pennsylvania]. I’m really the only candidate that can be a 50-state candidate among Republicans. So I think that’s something that has to be considered also.”
Producer’s note: Through a partnership with BlogTalkRadio, AirCongress is promoting federal policy and political content produced by the company’s Internet-based talk-show hosts.
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