Well, I found out why Ned wasn't at the Cigarettes Cheaper on Kearny last night. His interview was there at *9 A.M.*, not *9 P.M*. When I spoke with him today, he said he couldn't imagine anyone being downtown at 9pm, and seems to have been assuming that was understood all along, whereas I could have *sworn* our conversations included references to this thing happening in the evening on more than one occasion, and I assumed the late hour was because it was for the 10 or 11 o'clock news or something. Sigh.
Anyway, Ned says he did the interview, and it was for Channel 32. Don't know when it will be on. He also seemed sure that Kearny store manager Rick Slaker will be OK with having materials there to promote Mike Denny and the local party. At first Rick told him he didn't think there were any Libertarians in SF who spoke English (!) or something like that, but then Ned said the *very next customer* who came into the store told them that he was a Libertarian and had been following Ned's campaign! Unfortunately Ned doesn't know or doesn't remember who this person was, but he said it turned Rick's perspective right around!
I also spoke with J.R. Manuel today about the mayoral/gubernatorial debate on the 17th. It turns out the conflicting California Broadcasters' debate for governor in Sacramento has been rescheduled from the 17th to the 24th. So the gubernatorial part of the SF event will definitely be happening. However Arnold Schwarzenegger's and Gray Davis's people have still not confirmed. Davis says he'll only go if Arnold is there. What I'm afraid is that one or both of these candidates will ultimately refuse to come if it means sharing a stage with the Green, Libertarian and Reform candidates (J.R. has also decided to see if Independent candidate Jeff Rainforth who is supposedly the Reform Party state chair can attend along with Roscoe and Camejo.) I unsuccessfully tried to pin J.R. down on what he will do if it comes to that, but he refused to go there. His feeling is that he has the negotiating skills so that once he gets tentative confirmations from the Republican and Democrat, he'll be able to finesse the details and get them to go along. I said I would be very disappointed if the rug is pulled out from under the alternative party candidates.
J.R. said he really is committed to a "non-partisan" (by this I think he means multi-partisan) format where different views are represented. He mentioned his appreciation for the endorsements from the Libertarian, Republican, and Reform parties when he ran for mayor — jumping into the fray with these recommendations can benefit the party! — and said he wants to help parties get their voices heard in return. I did get him to agree that a decision would be made and the candidates would know for sure what was happening by September 13, a week from today, although he hopes to let them know within a couple days. This wasn't what I wanted, but at least we have a cut-off date.
I realized the 17th is also the date for this month's Direct Action Forum, so unless I hear a good alternate suggestion, I'm simply going to cancel it and encourage people to go to the debate instead. Mike Denny will be there as a candidate, I'll be an interviewer, and hopefully Ned Roscoe will be representing us as a candidate for governor in an event put on by non-Libertarians — this is the kind of real-world politics that the DAF is designed to get us more involved in, so I don't mind letting an event of this nature take precedence.
Yours in liberty,
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