Cantor camp turns down invitation to free public forum.
A top aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the Republican will not accept a challenge from Chesterfield County’s Democratic Party to meet its own candidate, Wayne Powell, in a free public forum before the Nov. 6 elections.
“Mr. Powell has been challenging us to stand next to him on the courthouse steps for some time now,” Cantor spokesman Ray Allen said in an interview with the Observer. “He wants Eric to come down to his level and get down in the mud, and he won’t do that.”
The remarks came in response to a letter last week from Bernie Vogelgesang, chairman of the county’s Democratic Party. Vogelgesang wrote that his party is calling on Cantor “to appear in a public meeting that unlike the Chamber debate does not charge $25 for a members’ only event.”
Vogelgesang was referring to Democrats’ complaint that the only appearance of Cantor and Powell, who are vying for the 7th District, will be at a Virginia Chamber of Commerce event on Oct. 1.
Vogelgesang said that since the debate is open only to members of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and their invited guests, it’s not truly an open public forum.
“If you don’t know anyone on the Chamber, you won’t be able to get in,” Vogelgesang said. “That deprives the public of seeing exactly where Wayne Powell and Eric Cantor stand on the issues.”
http://www.chesterfieldobserver.com/news/2012-09-26/News/Cantor_camp_turns_down_invitation_to_free_public_f.html
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