Comments on: The Republican Roundup

By: juststoppingby

juststoppingby — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 02:56:00 +0000

As a resident of Hattiesburg, I am glad that Betsy Rowell did not have the majority vote on June 8th. She is an extrememly shady character and all the while she was trying to dig in the Mayor’s closet looking for skeletons, she should have been looking in the floor-length mirror on the closet door. Did the mayor bring up the lawsuits against Betsy? Did he bring up the fact that Betsy was using City stationary for her own personal use so her conniving letters would appear more legit? The woman is a snake in the grass. I mean, c’mon. She blamed Lee Davis for her losing the election because he refused to back her. The mayor led his entire campaign without one negative ad or word about Betsy. That was very mature, showed he had the integrity Betsy lacked. She wanted so badly to win the election, when she couldn’t find any bad skeletons on Mr. Mayor Dupree, she had to attack his childhood friend, Rev. Fairly. This showed the degree of her desperation. She brought up allegations from 1995 or somewhere in there when Dupree was not the mayor nor Chief Lynn the chief of police. If she wants to blame anyone for Rev Fairley’s lack of charges she should look to the DEA or just get over it. All in all, the good guy actually won this time and without any gimmicks. Hooray for Mayor Johnny Dupree.

By: AskBetsy

AskBetsy — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 18:58:47 +0000

Betsy is T-O-A-S-T!

By: ynotme297

ynotme297 — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 23:39:14 +0000

just a note, lacey kelly vfw post3036 located at 210 ronie st, will be hosting a mayoral and ward 1 candadites forum on april 21 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm the public is invited. tedd tibbett from news98 sport and talk radio will moderate. don`t know if mr. tibbett will be broadcasting it or not. come join in. should be interesting.

By: wilebill

wilebill — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 23:14:05 +0000

"I thought this was the same case, because I thought I saw some of the candidates reading their answers off of a paper."

If they were not the first to respond to the question, just about all the candidates took notes while the others talked, then referred to those notes when they gave their response.

We rotated who answered each question first so that everyone had an opportunity to go first, and also last. We tried to be as fair to everyone as possible.

By: HFD4Ever

HFD4Ever — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 16:34:18 +0000

To answer the comment on employees who work for the city must live in the city. When I was hired as many others, I resisded outside of the ciyt limits and still do. The concept was if you live within 10 miles of the city limits you were approved to be hired. This is “bird miles” not actual road miles. There is a clause that the city will give special consideration to city residents. As an emergency responder, the 10 mile limit gives us an acceptable response time in the event of an emergency. I believe that the Mayor and council members need to reside in the city limits, but as for directors, if they can successfully do thier jobs and have an acceptable response time in the event of emergencies, they should have the latitude to reside where they want. The most qualified person to be a director may live on the outskirts of the city and may not be able to afford to move for possibly only 4 years. I know that there are many municipalities who’s police and fire chiefs live ajacent to the city and still serve with a greater convection than some who reside in thier respective cities. The main result should be that they are dedicated to the job, the citizens (customers) and the people who they supervise. Remember, if you are not happy with the current administartion, get out and vote.

By: aaron

aaron — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 09:46:13 +0000

thanks for your comments wilebill. I do appreciate the Jaycees putting this together. If you remember, everyone was talking about the Presidential cnadidates taking approved questions from the audience during the Presidential debate. I thought this was the same case, because I thought I saw some of the candidates reading their answers off of a paper.

By: usmdesigner

usmdesigner — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 21:25:37 +0000

I’m to use to reading the last few post. Haha. Sorry.

By: wilebill

wilebill — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:44:16 +0000

The Comcast political forum mentioned in the first sentence of this topic.

By: usmdesigner

usmdesigner — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 15:02:47 +0000

What forum are you talking about wilebill?

And thanks for that info MSGOP

By: wilebill

wilebill — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 12:13:18 +0000

Just wanted to comment on the forum itself, and the format used.

I was one of the organizers of the forum and am glad that you saw it as a benefit to the community. That was its sole purpose - to give the voters more information on the candidates so as to make an informed decision come election day.

The format we used was chosen based on experiences with other forums that Comcast has sponsored in other areas. Since the main goal was to broadcast the forums on TV, it was determined not to ask questions directly from the audience because of logistics with the number of cameras needed and their placement, microphone placement, getting the microphones to the question asker, etc.

By airing the forum on TV, this would give it a wider audience than by limiting the presentation strictly to the Saenger audience.

So it's not that "this country doesn't do that anymore" but the chosen format was due more to using the available resources (including money) as effectively as possible. Taking questions directly from the audience would probably have doubled the number of people required to put on the debate, and would have more than doubled the budget of the TV production and post production. Even though Comcast was a sponsor, a very large portion of the forum costs were borne by the Hattiesburg Jaycees.

But then again, all the questions asked were asked by residents and citizens of Hattiesburg. The first 6 questions were prepared by the Jaycees, and the final 2 were questions taken from audience members who filled out their questions before the debate began. The candidates were not given an advanced copy of the questions, so all their answers were on the spot. We would have liked to have asked a lot more questions than we did, but with 6 candidates and the amount of time we had, we were limited in that regard.

However, there will be another debate on May 24 between the final candidates. Those should be the winners of the Democatic, Republican, and Independent primary.

To give the Jaycees feedback, suggestions, or to donate money to the cause, please visit their website at http://www.hattiesburgjaycees.org.