All forumed out

The three main Mayoral candidates are cutting back on the number of candidate forums they’re doing.

Having logged more than 40 so far with just about every interest group or neighborhood imaginable, the campaigns of City Controller Annise Parker, City Councilman Peter Brown and former city attorney Gene Locke apparently have decided that enough is enough, sending out joint letters via e-mail notifying some groups that their forums or “debates” are no more.

The reason, according to some politicos, is that the candidates have such similar views that their ideas for fixing Houston’s problems may not resonate in these civic settings.

“I saw a picture of the three of them at one of these events recently, and they honestly just looked dead bored,” said Marc Campos, an unaffiliated political consultant who was scheduled to ask questions at a recently canceled event. “They haven’t distinguished themselves. Everybody pretty much knows where they’re at on all these issues. They’ve been asked the same questions over and over and over, and they’ve all stuck to their own party line, so it’s a little bit of, this is too much.”

In the form letters, which were sent to eight or nine groups, including some to which the candidates already had committed, the campaign managers explained that there were just too many forums. More than 20 are scheduled this month, including five this week.

“While our candidates will be accessible to all Houstonians, the rigors of a campaign and the time constraints on our candidates’ schedule, do not allow us to participate in every request we receive,” the letter says. “After having done nearly 40 forums to date, there are simply too many joint appearances to accept all.”

My recollection from 2003 is that there weren’t as many such events that year as there have been this year. I could be wrong about that, I wasn’t paying as close attention back then as I am now, but it sure seems to me like there have been a ton of these. I do feel bad for the groups whose forums were canceled – the Montrose Area Democrats, whose email to Carl Whitmarsh announcing their event’s termination appears to be the spark for this story, had clearly done a lot of work in preparation for their now-defunct forum – but I have sympathy for the candidates as well. By the way, there is a forum tonight at TSU, and the Houston Press would like you to know that they one they’re involved in, at UH-Downtown on September 30, is still on. Miya has more, while Nancy Sims reports from – you guessed it – a Mayoral forum from earlier this week.

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