Here come the candidates, Part 1

It’s that time of year again. We’re gearing up for election coverage in October and we want to provide as much coverage as possible regarding the local, state, and regional elections.

I’ll post the specifics as they get confirmed by Mardi and me. Here’s what we have so far:

Thursday, September 30 at 5 p.m. — John Shoales and Dave Mullinix discuss Proposition 22.

Friday, October 1 at 5 p.m. — Rosemary Wilvert and Mila LaBarre argue for a “Yes” on Measure H in SLO.

Monday, October 4 at 5 p.m. — Jan Marx, candidate for SLO mayor.

Tuesday, October 5 at 4:30 — Dan Carpenter, San Luis Obispo city council

Tuesday, October 5 at 5 p.m. — Paul Brown, candidate for SLO mayor

Wednesday, October 6 at 4 p.m. — Kathy Smith San Luis Obispo city council

Thursday, October 7 at 4:30 — Andrew Carter, San Luis Obispo city council

Thursday, October 7 at 5 p.m. — Sheriff’s candidate forum (Cortez is confirmed)

Friday, October 8 at 5 p.m. — No on Measure H (San Luis Obispo)

Wednesday, October 13 at 5 p.m. — Tom Watson, Republican for Congress.

Thursday, October 14 at 5 p.m. — Paul Teixiera, candidate for District 4 county supervisor.

Tuesday, October 19 at 5 p.m. — Mike Zimmerman, candidate for District 4 county supervisor.

Tune in! Call in! Be sure to vote!

Monday, Monday

I will be away from Hometown Radio on Monday, off to LA to see Mom and help her turn 95. Looking forward to the celebration. Annie Lorenzen and Mark Wilson will guest host, with Annie taking on the second half of the show with a rather controversial guest from Chicago discussing abortion. I suspect the phones will be ringing. I’ll be back on Tuesday and hope to have Devina Douglas, the whistleblower on the South County Sanitation District mess as my special guest.

Meanwhile, congrats and thank you to Judy Salamacha who hosted an incredible Writers’ Conference at Cuesta College over the weekend. Kudos to everyone involved and I hope that Cuesta continues to support the only writers’ conference on the Central Coast.

Thanks to Bill Denneen for recognizing Hometown Radio with his most recent “Denneen Envrionmental Award” in recognition of all the coverage we’ve given to local environmental issues on the show. Bill is one-of-a-kind and I appreciate deeply his recognition of our work.

Hope everyone has a good week.

The GOP goes to the right, way to the right

As the dust settles from Tuesday’s elections, it seems that the republicans have decided their best strategy for the new few years is to run to the right, way to the right. Analysis shows that members of the so-called Tea Party movement won big in delaware and New York.

As the LA Times repoprted, “The conflict between tea party activists and the political establishment has defined the primary season, which began to wrap up Tuesday with contests in seven states and the District of Columbia. Hawaii holds its primary Saturday.”

Case in point: Delaware, where a moderate Republican, considered a shoo-in in November was defeated by the Tea Party candidate. Now Republicans are worried that their nominee won’t be able to appeal to Independents to win in November. It is a debate being played out across the country.

We’ll definitely discuss the topic on the radio this week, but feel free to weigh in here.  Do the Tea Party flks help or hurt the Republican Party? For me, I delight in rumors that Palin wants to run in 2012. That would be fitting.

Gearing up

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. Summer is officially over and time to get serious on Hometown Radio.

Mardi and I are starting to plot out our coverage for the November 2 elections. We’re going to start with SLO mayoral candidates: Jan Marx joins us Monday, October 4th and Paul Brown on Tuesday, October 5th. We’ll post a complete schedule as things are finalized.

Special show tomorrow (Friday) Mardi Hall is going to be at the Lemos store in San Luis on Broad and Orcutt from 3 to 7 p.m. We’re encouraging folks to bring in their dogs and cats to be microchipped for only $20. Great deal. Bring your pet and swing on by and see Mardi.

Meanwhile, the big national issue on the radio this week continue to be the nutjob pastor in Florida who wants to burn the Qu’ran. It is the latest example in a series of religious intolerant issues that have flared up around the country. We had a tsunami of calls yesterday. We’ll do part Ii today with Rev. Caroline Hall of St. Benedict’s weighing in.

Looking forward to the discussion.