Wednesday

Civic Federation's Grade for Candidates' Forum: D

Hi Yupette,

Nice to see the Sun Gazette stopped awarding letter grades to candidates at the CivFed debates based upon elocution and started reporting what the candidates actually said.

But how well did the Civic Federation perform at last night's debate? Not very.

This year the CivFed debates are relocated to Washington and Lee High School Auditorium due to renovation of the Hazel Auditorium at the Virginia Hospital Center.

Candidates who appear at CivFed debates are expected to be prepared and follow the rules. But the Civic Federation was NOT prepared to host debates at W-L High School. There was insufficient parking, directions to the W-L Auditorium were not posted inside and outside the school, the debate's moderator was often confused, audio quality was poor, only a handful of CivFed delegates were allowed to ask questions. Many of the questions asked by delegates were parochial and did not reflect well on the delegates or the Civic Federation. Two Arlington police officers were stationed outside the auditorium, allegedly to intimidate minorities from attending - the Civic Federation is almost entirely white, upscale, middle aged and elderly.

With all that's expected of candidates at these debates there's no excuse for the Civic Federation's leadership to mess up the basics. I'm not holding my breath expecting the October 4th debates to go any better.

Former Delegate