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Job Interview Here Is Your Chance To Fill The Role Of Personnel Manager And Ask Important Questions Of The Candidates For Congressional Office

Doug Floyd Interactive Editor

Yard signs blighting your neighborhood? Political ads insulting your intelligence? It must be the campaign season.

But don’t despair. Pre-election dialogue doesn’t have to be so shallow.

On Oct. 13, from 6 to 8 p.m., KSPS Public Television will air back-to-back televised debates featuring the candidates for Congress in Washington’s 5th and Idaho’s 1st congressional districts.

These debates will differ from the norm. The questions will come not from the candidates themselves, nor even from journalists or panelists, but from voters - from you.

Use the form printed on this page to submit questions you believe should be put to the candidates. The form can be mailed to Doug Floyd, c/o The Spokesman-Review, 999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201, or sent by fax to 459-5098. Internet user can reply on-line at The Spokesman-Review’s web site, Virtually Northwest (http://www.virtuallynw.com/).

If your question is selected, you can attend the debate and ask it in person. The candidates, after all, are job applicants, and you, the prospective employer, have a right to quiz them about the issues you consider important.

Sponsors of the debate are KSPS, KPBX public radio and The Spokesman-Review. It will be held in the Spokane Ag-Trade Center before a live audience and will be broadcast live on both KSPS (Channel 7) and KPBX (91.1 FM).

Freelance television journalist Hugh Imhoff will be the moderator. The format will include a 45-minute debate between U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt Jr., R-Wash., and his Democratic challenger - Sue Kahn, Judy Olson or Don McCloskey, depending on Tuesday’s primary election - and another between Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, and her Democratic opponent Dan Williams.

In the final half hour of the two-hour program, a small panel of viewers at the KSPS studio will discuss their reactions.

This kind of programming is what distinguishes a local public television station from the national fare offered by the Public Television Network, says Bill Stanley, station manager at KSPS

Originally, the debate was planned for Sunday, Sept. 29, immediately following a national Public Broadcasting System presentation, “PBS Debate Night: The Future Congress.”

KSPS had applied for and received a PBS grant to underwrite the project. That grant fell through, however, because Congress is scheduled to be in session through Oct. 4 and neither Nethercutt nor Chenoweth would commit to be in Spokane on a Sunday evening preceding a Monday when important floor action could come up in their absence.

Station officials felt the project was too important to their local programming mission to abandon it.

“We need to be as visible locally as possible,” said station manager Stanley.

Stanley said he didn’t see why PBS tied strings to the Sept. 29 date when West Coast flight schedules made that timing unworkable for Spokane.

“But if we can’t make things work out locally, we’ll certainly adjust and do whatever we need to do,” he said.

That adjustment, shifting the date to Oct. 13 at the expense of the PBS grant, will cost the local public television station $8,000 to $9,000, Stanley estimated.

The box below offers tips for writing questions to be used in the debate. Questions must be received by Oct. 1 to be considered for use the night of the debate.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: We need your questions

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TIPS FOR PHRASING DEBATE QUESTIONS: 1. Remember that these candidates are running for Congress. Make sure your question relates to the scope of that office. 2. Be neutral. In each debate, both candidates will have a chance to answer each question. Avoid loaded questions that signal a preference for one candidate over the other. 3. Be clear and succinct. State your question in the fewest words necessary to make the point. Time will be limited. 4. Be original. Try to elicit information that the candidates haven’t already discussed at length. 5. Reflect your genuine concerns as a voter. The value of this format is that it focuses attention on issues that are on voters’ minds - which may not be the same issues the candidates prefer to talk about. 6. Be yourself. Ask the question you want, not the question you think everyone else wants to ask.

This sidebar appeared with the story: TIPS FOR PHRASING DEBATE QUESTIONS: 1. Remember that these candidates are running for Congress. Make sure your question relates to the scope of that office. 2. Be neutral. In each debate, both candidates will have a chance to answer each question. Avoid loaded questions that signal a preference for one candidate over the other. 3. Be clear and succinct. State your question in the fewest words necessary to make the point. Time will be limited. 4. Be original. Try to elicit information that the candidates haven’t already discussed at length. 5. Reflect your genuine concerns as a voter. The value of this format is that it focuses attention on issues that are on voters’ minds - which may not be the same issues the candidates prefer to talk about. 6. Be yourself. Ask the question you want, not the question you think everyone else wants to ask.