Reduced
Democratic
Field
Participates
in
Forum at
McLean Community Center
Moderator
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post Poses Hard Questions to Six
Candidates in VA-08 Primary
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May 15, 2014 - Six
of the seven remaining Democratic candidates running to
succeed U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D) in Virginia's 8th Congressional
District faced off in a
candidate forum held Thursday evening at the Alden Theatre in McLean
Community Center. Moderator Glenn Kessler, who writes the "Fact
Checker" column for the Washington
Post, posed challenging questions on a broad range of subjects
including how
the candidates would fix Obamacare, what they would do about aid to
Egypt, the Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria, whether Edward Snowden is
a traitor or a hero, whether tax reform shoud be revenue neutral,
whether they agree with Sens. Warner (D) and Kaine (D) and Gov.
McAuliffe (D) in supporting drilling for oil off the coast of Virginia,
and their views on net neurality.
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At one point Don Beyer, who is considered the frontrunner in the race,
told Kessler "you ask hard questions." Participating
in the forum were Alexandria
Mayor Bill Euille, Del. Patrick Hope, Mark Levine, Lavern Chatman,
former Lt. Gov. Don Beyer and state Sen. Adam Ebbin; Derek Hyra had
been scheduled to appear but did not show up.1
The candidates were
divided into two groups. Following one-minute opening statements
each
group was asked a question and those three candidates gave one minute
responses; then the opposite group of three candidates was asked a
different
question and they responded. At
the end of the forum each candidate was allowed to respond to one
question he or she
had not been asked. Finally, the candidates gave two-minute
closing
statements. Even there Kessler added a wrinkle asking the
candidates, if they could, to work into their statement if they
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consider themselves to be a Hillary Clinton Democrat or an
Elizabeth Warren Democrat.
Kessler's carefully worded questions and occasional follow-ups forced
the candidates off their talking points a fair bit of the time,
although at one point Del. Hope, in an interesting bit of verbal
acrobatics, gave a quick response to a question on Burma and then went
on to attack Beyer for positions he had taken on welfare reform as
lieutenant governor. Beyer wove in a detailed rebuttal to Hope's
charges in several of his responses. a person who the attended
the forum described it as "intellectually stimulating."
The forum was sponsored by the Dranesville District Democratic
Committee, Providence District Democratic Committee and Fairfax County
Young Democrats. Two other candidate forums are coming up this
week. One sponsored by the African American Leadership Council of
Arlington will be held at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Arlington
tomorrow evening,
and another sponsored by Beth El Brotherhood & Jewish Community
Relations Council will be held at the Jewish Community Center of
Northern Virginia in Alexandria on Sunday morning.
1. Hyra later explained that there had been a
communications mixup and he had not committed to participate in the
forum.
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