My Challenge to Debate Housing Policy & Rent Control is Refused by Establishment Candidates

By Bobby Harris

Leading council candidates have all refused to participate in any public debates on housing and rent control. Informative press release of this challenge is attached.

Below is the press-release, published in Arcata Eye and Times-Standard :

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Arcata Council Candidate Challenges Opponents to Debate Rent Control

Arcata, California (October 13, 2006) --- Acting swiftly on his complaints regarding, "basic and serious inadequacies of the current council election process," voiced during broadcast of the recent KEET-TV / LWV debate, Arcata City Council Candidate Bobby Harris today challenges the other candidates in this race to participate in a single-subject debate on the topic of housing and rent control.

"After reviewing the comments opposing rent control made by other candidates in their responses to Arcata Chamber of Commerce's questionnaire." describes Harris, "I decided to seek the proper process and venue to correct their confusions and prevail against their arguments, thereby educating the public. Topics like housing and economic development are basic yet complex enough to well warrant candidate discussion and debate within a single-subject format. But at present no such events exist, revealing a grave shortcoming of our local democratic processes."

"There is only about half of what the public really needs in terms of electoral debates, with these traditional, time-limited formats," argues Harris, "where complex matters are relegated to spurts of sound-bites sandwiched amdist a vast hodgepodge of subjects." In Harris' view, "Elections only occur at two year intervals, and offer by far the best opportunites to gain public attention, education, understanding and participation, toward developing consensus on important matters of public interest, safety and welfare."

Harris claims that, "single-subject forums are essentially a missing basic element, a neglected key component of properly comprehensive electoral process, the sorely absent complement to our existing campaign practices."

"How are we ever to properly examine and articulate serious questions of public policy, the basic areas of governmental responsibility, within one minute sound-bites," complains Harris. "Especially Arcatans are interested and sophisticated enough to deserve the other half of their political meal." So, Harris proposes to step up to the plate and challenges other council candidates to join him, in particular, "candidates who are expressing their opposition to rent control without being in control of the relevant facts and policies."

"It's quite clear from the leading, establishment candidates' responses to the election questionnaire," asserts Harris, "that they unfamiliar with the facts and the law in this area, and also sadly out of touch with relevantly key public policy values of rent control. Housing is such a fundamental area of policy that I'm genuinely motivated to challenge these three council candidates, in particular, to participate in a public forum on this important subject, as the beginning of what will hopefully become a valuable tradition of such single-subject electoral venues."

Harris describes that, "I've already debated this subject with an HSU faculty member, in a private setting arranged by a local publication which for some reason couldn't design any way to present this debate to the public. I prevailed in that debate against the HSU economist, according to expertise within the field of state housing policy which was independently consulted. So, I suppose I'm now ready and able to encounter these three candidates who are expressing blunt opposition to rent control in Arcata."

"Arcatans shouldn't have to wait two more years in order to enjoy the crucial benefits, the nourishing fruits, of the other half of their important political meal, essential for proper functioning of a democracy," explains Harris. "I hope to learn soon that these three candidates, and perhaps more, will participate in this launching of a beneficial tradition to improve the quality of our local political and electoral discourse."