Posted by AugustaC4L on 10/26/09 7:42 PM Last updated 10/26/09 9:13 PM [Newer: Ron Paul for 2012?!] [Older: Helen Blocker Adams' Political Dreamteam Radio show - 10/15/2009]

I have the podcast links for the "Helen Blocker-Adams' LIVE - Local Candidats Forum" show. 

As some of you already know I am on the panel for "Helen Blocker-Adams' Political Dreamteam Roundtable Discussion" radio show each Thursday and as a part of her political team I was one of the panelist present at this event to ask the local candidates questions for the Augusta-Richmond County Commission Elections and a Special Board of Education District 5 election.  The links below are from that event Thursday, October 22nd, 2009.

• I will also be posting another blog today or by tomorrow with a scoring of each candidate on the issues of freedom in Life, Liberty, Property and Fiscal responsibility.  This will in no way be an endorsement for any candidate - as "Campaign for Liberty does not endorse candidates" - this will simply show you (in my own opinion and scoring) where each candidate stands on the issues of liberty and the principles we believe in here at the Campaign for Liberty, based on their answers and remarks from this event.  I will also leave my own commentary as to why they received such scores and once I finish my report and scoring I will update this blog with the link to the new "Liberty Scoring" blog with all the scores and my own commentary.  So look back for that.

Now to the Canidates forum:

All 12 Candidates were present for this event and they are listed below as:

Augusta-Richmond County Board of Education District 5:
Aisha Leverett
Patsy Scott
James Williams Jr.

Augusta-Richmond County Commission District 1:
Jo'rae Jenkins
Butch Palmer
Bill Fenoy
Matt Aitken

Augusta-Richmond County Commission District 3:
Cleveland O'steen
Joe Bowles
Joy Mitchell Booker

Augusta-Richmond County Commission District 5:
William "Bill" Lockett
Bobby Hankerson

I have listed the questions that were asked during the event.  Not all were from me, some were from Megan Seda of the (Columbia County Young Republicans) and Butch Gallop of (Gallop and Associates) who were also on the panel and toward the end a few questions from audience members.  The questions were addressed directly to individual commission districts as opposed to across the board or to each individual candidates.  Questions that were presented by myself will be marked by an ( * ) beside them.  The questions are listed in order below but you will have to listen to the podcast in order to hear the candidates responses.

Questions Incude:

District 1: What exactly will you do about the problem of flooding in East Augusta that has existed for the last 30 years?

* District 3: In your opinion, should an individual's private property be protected from eminent domain?  If so, how would you protect the individual's rights - in your district - to their property?

Board of Education District 5:  What would be your prime initiative that you would advocate for on the school board to improve the educational process in Richmond County?

District 5: South Augusta is growing right now with a lot of new businesses, residential areas, [etc].  What I would like to know is, at this point in time what will you do to make sure that the infrastructure is in place with the concerns to that growth.

* District 1: How do you feel about the use of tax revenues or tax abatements being used to subsidize any business, including subsidizing owners of sports franchises for the construction of facilities such as stadiums?

District 3: This past year we've had an $8 million dollar budget deficit in Augusta-Richmond County.  How would you in a time of recession and tightened budget make sure there is always enough funding to support law enforcement functions?

Board of Education District 5: You have furloughs for the teachers.  What incentives will you now give or support for the teachers?

* District 5: As a means of lowering city overhead, would you consider selling off some of the city's public facilities to private industry, and which facilities in District 5 could you name that would be worth looking into doing so?

District 1: What achievements in your personal or professional life do you think show, that you could go into the commission and be effective as commissioner in implementing your ideas?

Questions from Audience members:

District 1:  What are you all going to do for the children in that district?

District 3: How will privatizing Government agencies save us money?

District 1: The commission originally agreed on $20 million dollars for the TEE Center, It has since ballooned up to about $70 million dollars.  I want District 1 candidates to justify why you would vote on it as it stand right now?

Board of Education District 5: I am a parent and person experience is important to me.  In a nutshell I would like to know what personal experience the candidates have with children and the public education.

(End of questions)

This opportunity to be on Helen Blocker-Adams' Political Dreamteam Discussion Panel, as well as the opportunity to sponsor the Political Dreamteam Discussion portion of her show, has been great all around.  The Campaign for Liberty is gaining more support and members, Helen is picking up new fans (which I know she's happy about) but some of these are Campaign For Liberty people and she says she loves it when she finds you Campaign for Liberty people listening in and she's getting Facebook messages, fans and friends requests, so keep it up guys and feel free to call in during a live show and put in your own thoughts.  THIS is just one avenue for helping to restore America and the principles of liberty we believe in, we have to speak out, get the message of liberty out there, educate people and Helen's show is TRULY independent and fair to all peoples ideas, so call in no matter where you are from, you can listen live online, and let's get more people spreading these ideas.  Thank you guys so much for showing support! 

And if you're reading this one Helen...  Thank you again for the opportunity you've given to put this message out there!

(NOTE: These files will stop working after Thursday 10/29/2009.  They get rotated out of their original source archive position.  However I have all the files from all of my podcast blogs and am working on reloading them to a server as soon as I find the right one.  Please be patient while I get the previous podcasts back up and running.  You can always send me a message and I will try to work something out to send you the files you wish for as well.)

Segment 1: 00822_Helen_Blocker_Adams_Show-Thursday.mp3

Segment 2: 00823_Helen_Blocker_Adams_Show-Seg2-Thursday.mp3

How to listen and call in:

To listen to the weekly, Thursday night's "Helen Blocker-Adams' Political Dreamteam Roundtable Discussion" show live online 7:00pm (EST) - 9:00pm.  Go to www.helenblockeradams.com, scroll down and click the "Listen to Helen live online" link, or a more direct link to the streaming player here.  Hope you all enjoy!!! 

The Next Political Roundtable show: Will be November 5th, 2009.  The 10/29/2009 show has been canceled as Helen will be covering another event live that night.  So join us Thursday, 11/05/2009 for the Poilitical Roundtable Discussion, it will be two days after the local Augusta-Richmond County election and I am sure that it will be one of the hot topics of the show that night.  You can find the call in numbers at Helen Blocker-Adams' website.  

• I've also created a POLL on my last blog in response to a topic from that night's discussion ( Helen Blocker Adams' Political Dreamteam Radio show - 10/15/2009 ) to get your thoughts on "spoiler" or "non-electable" candidates in elections.  I encourage everyone to participate in this poll and would appreciate you sending it to everyone you know.  But please hurry and vote and pass it along because the poll ends at 11:59pm EST - 10/28/2009.  I want to get as many votes on this issue as possible and I plan to reveal the results ON AIR - if possible - when we return back to the regular political roundtable discussion show on November 5th.  Thank you all for your participation and support.

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                              For liberty,

                             Robert McGee