On Sept 22, 2015 the Keene Liberty Alliance hosted a Mayoral Debate between the three candidates who will appear on the October 6 primary election ballot: Rick Blood, Kendall Lane & Kris Roberts.
Moderator, Darryl W. Perry, asked questions submitted by voters and City Council candidates. The debate was aired live on Cheshire TV channels 8 and 10, and will be rebroadcast a few times between now and the election. If you don’t have Time Warner Cable, you can watch the debate on youtube.
On September 22, the Keene Liberty Alliance will host a debate between the three candidates for Mayor of Keene. Both challengers, Rick Blood and Kris Roberts have confirmed their participation in the debate against incumbent Mayor Kendall Lane.
On the day he signed up for the election, Kris Roberts posted on facebook: “I would like to have three debates with everyone who signs up to run for mayor. One run by the Sentinel, one at the college, one live on channel 8 where people can phone their questions in.”
It is not yet known if the Sentinel or college will host a debate. However, the debate hosted by the Keene Liberty Alliance will be broadcast live on Cheshire TV at 2p, and will include questions from the moderator as well as questions from the viewing audience, who will be invited to call or tweet with their questions. Questions can be submitted via Twitter using #KLADebate or via phone during the broadcast.
The New Hampshire Union-Leader published an editorial, expressing disappointment that the Libertarian Party’s ballot access case lost in U.S. District Court on August 27, and suggested the prohibition on collecting petitions before the year of the election be repealed.
It is very likely the Libertarian Party will appeal.
In 2014 the New Hampshire General Court passed a new restriction on minor party access to the general election ballot by prohibiting a political organization from collecting petitions before the election year. The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire filed a lawsuit challenging this new law. A similar law in Rhode Island was struck down in 2009 because the sole claim by the Rhode Island government was “reducing the number of ‘false positives’.” In New Hampshire, that was the initial reason given for passage of the new law, however William Gardner changed the reasoning the rationale to prevent ballot clutter and to ensure that political parties have a current modicum of support. (more…)
A couple of days ago the Keene Sentinel published the following Letter to the Editor, and the letter has been submitted to the City Council as a formal communication to be heard at an upcoming Council meeting.
For the last couple of years the city council has been debating whether or not, and by how much to increase parking meter rates, and the Parking Czar recently announced his retirement. The City even sued 6 people who were feeding meters to make a political statement, in hopes of creating a debate on whether or not the City even needs parking meters. (more…)