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Sonoma County, a diverse county of over one million acres is famed for its agriculture industry and recreation boasting a booming economy and a unique lifestyle for its citizens described by the same Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the earth. Sonoma County is the place

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to live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies. Sonoma County's 340,000 residents are a harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in

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the nineties with your host Rich McGlinchey, How you doing everybody? Welcome to this edition of Sonoma County in the 90s, we're gonna be talking about a very important subject. We're gonna be talking about how to make choices in a sense of the word when we have

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political races or matters to be decided by the ballot. We're gonna be talking about a debate series which is being sponsored. Well there, correct me if I used the wrong phrases here by the santa rosa Junior College and also the League of Women voters now on

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our program, the first segment of our program, we'll be talking to steve rabinowitz who is in the center of the screen. Uh, he's the social sciences instructor at santa rosa Junior College and we'll be talking to pauline Goddard, who is the president of the League of

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Women voters of Sonoma County for the time being. Uh, what I was about to say a moment ago was it's very important that we try to make the wisest choice as possible whenever there's something to be voted on. Well, one of the best ways to help

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us do that is to have people involved in the in the process on one pro and con or the candidates in front of us and let's hear what they have to say and let them talk to each other and determine which of them we feel would

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do the best job. That's what we're hoping to bring about. They're hoping to bring about with this debate series. Um with that said, oh one other thing later in our program, gonna be talking to Susan Warner, who is the League of Women voters moderator. Now we're

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going back to this point steve who organized the debate series. Well, the debate series is organized both by the santa rosa Junior college and the league of women voters, as you mentioned within the junior college, the social science department is the sponsor and I work on

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the debate series trying to identify the issues and candidates that will cover. There's a moderator for the debate series, Mark nelson, who teaches in the communications department and teaches debate and coaches the speech team and then the league of women voters is involved in in this

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process as well. And their main person working on the debate series blossom Getty, who contacts the people who are the candidates and the people who ask the questions for the debates. You're with the social science department. What type courses does the social science department offers? The

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Junior college? Well, it basically involves economics, history and political science, which includes american government, comparative government and international relations. So it's a fairly broad assortment of course, is involved in the department pauline. How you doing good, nice to have you here. This is important that we

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really get this information out pauline. What is the purpose of the League of Women voters? And the second part of that question, How did it begin? I'd like to start with its beginning because it has such a fascinating beginning. Um the league is a true child

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of the woman's suffrage movement in 1919, the Nationals American Woman suffrage Association. I've said that slowly, so you could get the meaning. Held its 50th convention in ST louis Missouri. And at that time the president was Carrie chapman Catt, one of our leading uh suffragettes. And

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she proposed at that convention the creation of a League of Women voters to continue the work of the suffragettes. But the League would be a nonpartisan political organization that would encourage the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influence public policy through education and

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advocacy. The next year, in 1920, in Chicago, six months before that 19th Amendment was ratified, The League was finally organized and we're going to celebrate our 75th anniversary very soon. And for almost 75 years, our purpose has relatively remained unchanged. And that is, you know, to

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promote citizen aware awareness in the government process? Mm hmm. That's good. That's well, that's well put too because I followed your efforts over the years here in Sonoma County and I know that that you live up to that to that purpose in this county, that's for

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certain steve, How did this debate series actually begin? Well, the series itself began about three years ago, I'd say. And it was pretty much a collaboration between the humanities instructor, Stephen Petty and myself and the communications department. And we realized that there's just a real need

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for information out there for the voters uh to be able to make educated choices. And it's important to see candidates actually in front of you on the television or be able to go to the debates themselves, which they are of course open debates that we have,

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where we encourage people to come because they have an opportunity to ask questions. And it's a, I think it's a wonderful opportunity for people to be able to be involved in the political process. So we felt there was this real need to involve people as there's

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such a problem with voter participation, declining voting. And we just think it makes a lot of sense. And luckily the League is joined with us and we feel we have a very successful series. Oh, I do too. I do too, because I observed it in action,

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as you say, the last two or three years pauline, how did the league or how does the League get involved in these particular debates or these debates? Well, actually, you know, that's part of our mission to provide non partisan political education. That contributes to the growth

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of citizens because we do want to help ensure the democratic process. But more, I think by reputation now people ask us, but we go out on our own. And I must emphasize that debates or panels must always be nonpartisan and present pros and cons, as you

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mentioned before, of whatever issue that we are discussing. And it is very important though, for the League of Women voters to distinguish between their advocacy role and their education role because we we are and do take positions on issues. So I could say that were asked

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by the community leaders through reputation to moderate school board races, uh city council races. Uh and you know, one of the best things we do is offer our pros and cons every year on the ballot measures. And nationally were the League of Women voters is known

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for the pros and cons and we are so non partisan and fair and have such strict um rules to go by. You know, up until recently, the League always presented the presidential debates nationally uh steve one of the types of debate you've had in this past

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few years that you've been in operation. Good ones. I know there have been good ones and in fact we do them generally the primary and the general election. We will we will cover all the elections. We've had congressional races, including both Hamburg seat and the Woolsey

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Lynn Woolsey has been there as well. We've covered state assembly races with Valerie Brown, Vivian Braunschweig of both debated on the series. State Senate mike, Thompson seat. We had that that debate, uh, city council races in santa rosa, even state ballot measures. We've covered the voucher,

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the school voucher program, welfare reform. Um, we've also done some of the county measures, such as prop eight and see that established the open space district and measure b the transportation tax measure as well. So we really run the full gamut of of races on this

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thing. We try to make it varied in fact, as we'll talk about the races this time, You'll see that there's some new ones we've never even covered before we're going to be getting into. So we do try to make it as broad as we can and

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choose the more interesting races to bring to the public and some new ground this year. And yeah, and I'll pause for a moment to say this, as I said, to begin with, if you are interested in your community, if you're interested in the people that are

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governing us, or the propositions that are placed before us. It behooves you to learn all you possibly can about those propositions or people so that you can make an intelligent decision when you're satisfied with. This is one way that you can actually take a greater part

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in the political process. Come to these debates here, these people here are the propositions and then make your decision. Uh there's three debates. I'll ask you about one and then you about a couple of pauline, what are the three debates that are playing this spring? And

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then you tell me a little bit about the first one. Uh The debates will all be held at Newman Auditorium on the santa rosa JC campus and they will be held at seven p.m. The first one is on april 28th and it concerns the seven municipal

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court candidates. The second one is May 11th and will cover the state parks bond and peddling the public safety tax issue, which is really been being looked at statewide. And then on May 18th steve has planned the county supervisorial race the fourth. So I might add,

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I'd like to add one thing about the seven municipal court candidates and something that the league does for um the public education, Very few people really know how to choose judges. And um the league has put out a recent publication on a guide to judicial elections.

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It's excellent and we have all kinds of booklets like this to help people. We put out a guide to California government. We have um guides to toxic waste, all kinds of educational documents to help people make wiser choices when they go to the ballot now steve.

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What about the second debate? Well, on May 11th we're going to have two debates essentially. One is going to be on the state park bond act, which is a, it's called cal pot stands for California for park and parks and wildlife sponsored by the PCL, which

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is the planning and Conservation League and it's a $2 billion bond that specifically goes to parks and open space preservation. It's of that two billion. About 22 million would come to various entities here in Sonoma County for specific parks and recreation and open space projects. Um,

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the next issue that we cover that night will be um, as pauline ventured, the Petaluma public safety assessment and this is an innovative kind of approach that is being considered in Petaluma for raising uh funds for specifically part of police and fire protection. That's the second

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debate the same night on the 11th of May. So that would be the first in the state that would be used for have an assessment going for police and fire and it's attracted a lot of statewide attention, including the Jarvis. Can folks who are interested and

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concerned about this, but it will be a lively debate I think because both of these will involve increasing revenues for public functions. The first one will be on parks and open spaces. I mentioned the second one will relate to public safety. So it'll be an interesting

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discussion as to the pluses and minuses. Yeah, it should be the first to sound exciting enough. And in keeping with the usual debates in this series, what about the third debate? The third debate will deal with the fourth supervisorial district. And we, there are two supervisors

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races up this time. They alternate every, so every two years. We have to uh, well to this time and three the next time. This time the second district seat is up, which is Jim Harverson seat and he's running for reelection in the fourth district, which is

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currently held by Nikos pasta. He's chosen not to run. And so there are two or possibly more contenders for that seat. So we'll be covering the fourth district only that evening. Those are such an exciting three series, exciting series of three debates and they're all going

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to be held at the Newman Auditorium and they're going to start at seven p.m. Seven p. M. And I want to be sure. And that one will be May 18th. Yeah, that last one. Yeah. Okay. Um, let me uh, elaborate a little bit on that last

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one steve, uh, what area does the fourth district actually cover? Well, this is part of what I think is important about this series, as we try to let people know what races are in their districts. As best as we can. And if you really need to

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know the answer to the question, it's oftentimes a good idea to call the Sonoma County Elections Department, but we do try to provide general information as to where the district is. It does cover the northwestern part of santa rosa, which would include the area west of

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Highway 101, the Jennings west ninth Street area, Lincoln park area. Um It goes up north from there to Lark field um to Windsor Healdsburg in Cloverdale and up to the, the Mendocino County line. So it's a pretty large district that covers basically the northern part of

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the county. You know, one thing I didn't ask you pauline, um we kind of got steve's background a little bit there. But what, how long have you been in the League of Women voters and what prompt you to get in there? Well, that's I've been in

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since 1973 and Susan has a book that she's going to show you. That influenced me to join the League. I'd heard of the League, but you know, you haven't been. No. But at that time I was teaching ninth grade World Studies and I was doing a

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government unit on Comparative Government Systems Political Systems and someone had told me the League had a pretty good booklet that I could use in class. And so I called the League and they gave me a whole class set. But I don't think we were as poor

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then as we are today, but we've just updated that booklet. And Susan is going to show it to you and it's really worth while for all citizens to take a look at. Thank you. We look forward to seeing that one that we have Susan a little

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bit later. We had about one time for one more question before we pause for a public service announcement announcement rather. But steve maybe you could hit on this one of the election and one of the major races are going to be decided. You mentioned the 2nd

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and 4th supervisorial district, I guess that's the no, there's others go ahead. Well, it's a primary election for partisan offices in other words, for the state and federal offices that will be decided in November. This is the primary. So within each party, a candidate is selected

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in the primary election and they run against the people and the other parties in the general election in November. This particular election is June seven. And for there'll be races including the U. S. Senate, Feinstein seat is up the house. Both uh Lynn woolsey and dan

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hamburger up state Senate and assembly. Both again are up. Well, mike Thompson is up in the state Senate, the assembly races since there every two years, there is an election there as well as the governor, lieutenant governor and all the state offices now in the county.

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They're also elections including the supervisor's election. The election for assessor and clerk and auditor, District attorney Sheriff in those elections will also be held in june. So there are a lot of races on the, on the every other two years when they elect the 2nd and

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4th district supervisor, they elect all the others, the superintendent schools down and like you say, a large number. Then on the other year there's just the three supervisors so that not quite as many candidates. I think we'll pause right here and at the station, bring the

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public a public service announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be back pauline Goddard, president of the League of Women voters of Sonoma County and steve rabinowitz, social science instructor for santa rosa JC. And two of the key figures in arranging the series of three debates which are

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coming up and I will return right after this message, October 1987, a small child is rescued from an abandoned, well, no country comes to the aid of a child the way we do yet today millions of Children need our help lost in an education system. Unable

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to prepare them for today's competitive world. Imagine if that same effort went into keeping the promise that every child gets the best education and has a future call 1 809 6 promise for information on changing the schools in your community because disaster strikes someone every single

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day, there's always going to be one more night someone needs food shelter and a place to rest. Please support the american red cross because without your help, one more night could be hard to come by. Welcome back to this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties

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were talking about the debate series which is being sponsored, co sponsored if you will by santa rosa Junior College and by the League of Women voters of Sonoma County. Gonna be three debates coming up in the near future and they're all vitally important, the ones that

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you should listen to listen to the information about, I guess I should say and then plan to attend if you possibly can to make you to see that you're better informed about the decisions that have to be made for our county and for the people are

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going to lead us. We've been talking with steve rabinowitz Social Sciences, excuse me, instructor centers junior College, We talked earlier with pauline, Goddard, major movie star all of a sudden um President of legal women voters. Now we're gonna talk to Susan Warner who is a legal

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women voters moderator and Susan will start out whether you got a long question here for you. I gotta read the thing. Um you have indicated that you're a political organization, pauline did but do not support or endorse candidates, but you do take positions on issues. How

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are the issues chosen and what's the process for all of this? That's a good question. The League is a true grassroots organization from the local level to the state level and then on to the federal level to the national level, positions are taken by the league

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and are established through careful study of the issue by several league members, followed by a discussion and consensus with the majority of league members to reach agreement. Issues are selected are those the league believes concerned the common good of the citizens and the democratic process. We

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also provide educational materials to assist citizens in the governmental process and I've given you a little blue pamphlet to show our listeners if you will um that the League is put together very recently for Sonoma County Government. Various government organizations such as city councils for Sonoma,

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Petaluma ca toddy and the like are listed in here for their meeting dates and contacts, phone numbers and addresses as well as a lot of other useful information to citizens. The leak takes positions on broad topics of government, natural resources and social policy examples under government,

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our campaign finance reform, the initiative and referendum process and ensuring open government at all levels with natural resources. Some examples are issues related to air and water quality, land use, energy and transportation similar with social policy issues, those relate to education, housing, childcare and similar things.

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It's important to point out that before the League can speak on an issue. The issue must be studied carefully usually for two years and adopted by the league members as a whole. Once we adopt this process of the position, we can use that position to guide

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our future comments to the government. Um, give you an example. Local leagues throughout the nation have just completed a two year study on health care and now the league has a national position with which to react to legislation. That is, that explains very well the answer

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to those questions and, and uh, you surprised me. I picked up some new things right in there in the moment, steve how did you decide on what debates to cover? Well, it's an interesting process and there's no science to it. We try to look at what

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the races are that are going on and try to identify what are the key races. Perhaps the races we haven't covered, the types of races we haven't covered before. Try to look at where we figure it'll be the most competitive situation uh, in the case of

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the ones we have this time that we never covered a court um, election before for judge. So we figured that would be a really good opportunity to have that. Um, these other ballot measures are, are very interesting and so we felt that that would be a

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good thing to get out to the public as they really aren't aware of a lot of these. There are other races as we talked about that are going on, but some of these will be in the, we will see in the general election in the fall

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for these partisan races with at the state and national level. We will probably have some of those in the fall debate series. So we decided not to carry them in the primary election. Um, and with the supervisor, we decided to carry the fourth district race. We

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felt that was a very interesting um contest and also uh, that race could be decided in June as in the county races. If you get one vote over 50%, the the election is the final in June, it doesn't go to the November ballot. Why do you

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feel these? I think we've kind of touched on that, but why do you feel this series debates is really important. I really think it's critical to get people involved in elections to get them to debate politics debate the issues. I don't think it goes on enough

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uh in our country that people discuss the issues. Um, I think we're very apathetic and many people just turned off to politics and I think that's really a shame and a and a mistake in our parts. I think we all have to get involved. And I

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hope this place at least a small part in re energizing people at least putting it out there on television to let them hear the debate. Let them come to the debates ask their own questions. I might add that you can still register to vote until the

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9th of may for this primary election. And so I really encourage people to do that and to get involved in the process. I got a couple of questions for Susan but I want to ask you one quick one first there what the debate formula. Use format

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the format. Well what we do is we have in each debate, candidates are allowed an opening statement generally 2 to 3 minutes and it depends some of our debates are half hour long, some of them are two hours long. In fact, our municipal court judgment is

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two hours long. They get an opening statement which is a prepared statement. Um then the question then there's a period of questions and answers where we either have prepared questions from faculty and and students or we have people from the media from the papers, from the

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radio stations and that's the way we've been doing it the last couple of times. And so there's a period there where they ask questions, then we have closing statements by them and then we have an open mic where people can ask questions of our time is

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escaping quickly. We have about three minutes left. I want to ask you one thing Susan are candidates from all the parties invited to debate. Yes, the League of Women voters and the Sonoma santa rosa JC always invite every candidate panels and debates must be non partisan

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and all inclusive to be sponsored by the League so that everybody, nobody's nobody's left out. I wanted to get you to tell us a little bit more about the league and what they're involved in, but we're running very rapidly out of time. I want to get

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a couple of months things who's involved in the production of the debates. Either of you, It's the audio visual department at the junior college that films the debates and post Newsweek cable does the production and televises it live. So and they've been doing a great job

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for us and we also then have it on a delayed basis on K. R. C. B. T. V. Who does it? Uh, I think two times after the debate is held. So it's a, you know, it's a great collaboration there. Um, do you have the list

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of where the debates are this time again? The debates are going to be at Newman Hall at santa rosa Junior College. And the first one will be april 28th on the municipal judges. The next one will be May 11th on the state parks bond and the

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Petaluma public safety tax. And the last one for this session would be May 18th on the supervisorial race. How many people will? Well, the Newman Auditorium hold, that'll hold enough probably a couple 100 to 2 to 300 to encourage people to come to the debates. It's

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a lot, a lot of fun to be there and just watched possible overflowing because your debate series as such as an entailed an awful lot of interest and it's the only televised debate series in the county. Absolutely. We're oh by the way, as a the phone

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number that can be reached, its right in that little blue pamphlet and I can find it if you want to hand that to me. All right, take a quick look at that. Give you this number. Here it is. We have it right here at 7075465943. And

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we are out of time. Thank you pauline. Thank you. Susan. Thank you steve. You're very rich McGlinchey here. I'll be back with you next week until then. Good night, Good luck and good health. Every one of you.