Schollenberger Challenges Republican U.S. Senate Nominee to Debate

Prairie Village, Kan. – U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Charles Schollenberger, of Prairie Village, today challenged the Republican U.S. Senate nominee, to be chosen by Kansas voters in the August 3, 2010 primary, to a series of three televised debates on Kansas Public Television this fall.

“Kansas voters deserve to see and hear their U.S. Senate candidates in televised debates,” Schollenberger said. “I’m proposing three debates after the August primary: one in late August, another in late September, and a third and final one in late October, just prior to the Nov. 2 general election.

Schollenberger has proposed that the debates be televised live over every Kansas public television station around the state so voters can learn where the candidates stand on the issues.

“The Dole Institute at the University of Kansas in Lawrence is the best place in Kansas to have these debates,” Schollenberger said. The Dole Institute’s mission is to promote civic participation in politics by providing a forum for the discussion of political and economic issues.

“The Pat Roberts-Jim Slattery U.S. Senate debate held at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in 2008 was plagued by poor production quality and poor sound. It was held outside under a tent on the Fairgrounds. The Dole Institute would offer a far superior venue for a debate that everyone could see, hear and understand,” Schollenberger said.

Schollenberger also noted that the spotty broadcast schedules of the 2008 debate prevented many people from seeing it. “The 2008 Kansas U.S. Senate debate, to the best of my knowledge, was shown in taped format after the event at various times on various public television stations around the state, with the result that many people missed seeing it.”

“This time the debates should also receive plenty of advance publicity so that as many people as possible can watch,” Schollenberger said.

In other news, Schollenberger also announced that most of his position papers on major issues confronting the nation are now posted on his website, www.schollenberger2010.com. Several additional ones will also be added shortly.

Schollenberger is a twenty-year resident of Prairie Village, Kan., and a communications executive and former teacher and journalist/editor for the Hutchinson (Kan.) News, Kansas City Star and Sun Newspapers of Johnson County, Kan. He has also worked as a lecturer in the University of Kansas journalism school’s marketing communications graduate program in Overland Park.