Cityvote Falls Well Short Of Big Show

The Big Unit walked slowly from the pitching mound.

He had just given up a home run that put his team down 4-0.

He threw hard. He worked every pitch.

It wasn’t enough.

Randy Johnson, best pitcher in the American League, failed to put his team into the World Series.

Is Randy Johnson a failure? Are the Mariners?

Not on your life.

But in sport, as in business or our daily lives, we still struggle to find ways to accept, even appreciate the efforts of people or institutions that strive mightily, yet fall a bit short of our goals.

We don’t give failure it’s due.

Tonight in Spokane, we will be reminded again of the difficulty of finding something valuable in failed effort.

There on stage and TV we will see the Spokane CityVote forum.

In May, organizers of this event envisioned a night when heavy-hitting Republican presidential challengers would take some mighty swings at Bill Clinton.

The Spokesman-Review and Cox Cable Spokane agreed to lend a hand to the national CityVote organization to help stage this debate.

Cox offered to provide a national television audience to more than 50 cities.

The Spokesman-Review and the Bullitt Foundation of Seattle agreed to fund 150 backyard forums in the region so citizens could shape their own questions on environmental issues and have these questions discussed by the candidates.

Other groups in Spokane added important early support as well. The Spokane County Republican Party, with the help of state committeeman Rich Munson and county chairman Duane Sommers, wanted to set up fund-raising events and sell tickets.

Robert Gilles, a Spokane Realtor and Jack Hebner, a former City Council member, organized the citizens committee that tracked the details and arranged for the hall.

Most of this worked.

Nearly 1,000 people participated in the backyard forums to develop some questions. The citizen volunteers created valuable new networks of support. The media worked together.

Only problem was, when the time came for the big national candidates to take the stage, they were no-shows.

Colin Powell said he wasn’t a candidate yet and had a book tour.

Bob Dole said New Hampshire was calling him.

President Clinton so feared the idea of a debate and vote this year that he tried to have his name removed from the November CityVote ballots in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

We wanted steak. We ended up with corn dogs.

Tonight’s CityVote debate at 6 p.m. in the Spokane Ag Trade Center still should be a lively discussion with national commentator Sander Vanocur about the state of American politics.

Vanocur also will moderate an entertaining forum with Libertarian Party presidential candidate Harry Browne, Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin, Republican candidates Art Fletcher and Chuck Collins, plus Lyndon LaRouche and Jesse Jackson via telephone.

In the end, however, Spokane’s CityVote debate won’t upstage New Hampshire as a political news item.

But this evening was worth the effort. The goal of the CityVote after all, was to begin work on some new way of trying to engage busy, urban voters in politics.

“CityVote is about the voices of citizens,” explained Larry Agran, the executive director of the national project. “Without question, that dialogue is under way.”

True enough, at least one end of the phone.

The citizens here were ready to participate in a thoughtful discussion about the trade-offs needed in this region to develop a coherent environmental policy.

In fact, their question from the backyard forums still will be asked of the candidates who show up tonight and have been sent directly to the national campaign offices of all the candidates who didn’t show up.

If the big names read their mail they will know what the people wanted to talk about with them.

Sadly, what we learned in Spokane is that candidates really don’t want much of that conversation.

National politics still is ruled by sound bites and paid political announcements, not real conversation.

The CityVote team, just like the Mariners, didn’t go to the World Series.

Both gave it a heck of a shot.

For the good of the games of politics and baseball, both need to be supported next time around.

, DataTimes MEMO: Chris Peck is the Editor of The Spokesman-Review. His column appears each Sunday on Perspective.