Over the years, GraniteGrok has made it part of our Citizen Journalism to cover debates. One reason is that we like listening (and critiquing) who was there, what was said, and to determine their political philosophies with respect to the NH Constitution, US Constitution, and to date, the NH GOP. We did debates, and covered them in unique ways, that the mainstream press just couldn’t or wouldn’t. Part of the later is either just a lack of time (on TV News) or space (newspaper “inches” or word counts. We, on the other hand, have neither limitation.
We also covered debates that they didn’t – they (and often the NH GOP) are only interested in the top of the ticket races: Governor, US Congress, US Senate. The other races?
Pound sand. Well, no longer. I’ve been yakking about taking GraniteGrok to the “next” level – debates will be part of that. While we will still cover other folks’ debates, we believe it is time to do our own. And we shall.
True, we will still cover others. No, we didn’t get an invited to the CD-1 debate fiasco and the follow on CD-2 debate sponsored by iHeart Radio / NH GOP. C’est la – but neither did we reach out to see if we could. Part on them, part on us – it happens. And I missed the CD-2 one out in Henniker at Steve Forster’s Tree Farm (yeah, life happens).
We HAVE been invited to the upcoming NRCC sponsored debate Monday, August 27 at 7pm; address is the Nashua Community College located at 505 Amherst St. in Nashua, NH. We will be there.
Our first debate! We are helping to sponsor the NH House Republican candidate debate in Hollis, NH at the Lawrence Barn along with the FLAG group (Conservatarians). Those that have confirmed their attendance are Carolyn Gargasz and Dr Jim Kelly. We are anticipating that Jim Belanger will be joining us and we are hoping that Donna Levassur will as well. The date is September 5!
We also wanted to sponsor, along with the Londonderry GOP, a debate in the Executive Council District 4 race between Ted Gatsas and Jane Cormier. I reached out to the Jane Cormier campaign – they accepted without hesitation. The Ted Gatsas campaign has been another story. I have reached out with multiple phone calls and emails. None of my emails were returned – I had to use their “contact email” on their site because there was no email address listed on the Ted Gatsas website. There is no phone number either – after searching around, I found it on another site. I called the number and each time it was clear it was a Ted Gatsas for Executive Council Campaign phone number.
At no time did anyone actually answer the phone – it was always the case that I had to leave a voice mail; they were never returned. Not what I was hoping for. I am still hoping that those emails and voice mails will be returned but responses from the Gatsas campaign, even if just to say “No” are as visible as Jane Cormier’s stolen signs.
I believe it would have been a good debate.
Anyways. As I’ve been posting up lately, GraniteGrok has been “teching up” by replacing all of our audio and video technology to be able to do these debates and livestream them and podcast them later. We are definitely looking to do more so if you have ideas on races and candidates, please let us know and we’ll bring “full kit” – and questions to ask!
We are also moving to do forums as well – issues and advocacy – so we’re open to hear your ideas of what you’d like to see discussed!
