2004 Year in Review

Thirteen Candidates Invited to thecity1.com and 5 Responded

The candidates written to were Senator John Kerry, President George W. Bush, Barak Obama, Alan Keyes, John Kutsch, Don Manzullo, Lane Evans, Andrea Zinga, Mike Boland, Steve Haring, Jerry Mitchell, Thomas Senneff and John Hauptman.Realistically we did not expect to hear from the two (2) presidential candidates or the two (2) U.S. Senate candidates. However the campaign manager of Barak Obama called us and politely declined our invitation for an interview due to an unexpected high number of speaking engagements.

The two running for the US Congressional seat from Illinois serving Morrison, Kutsch and Manzullo, we did not hear from Kutsch however Don Manzullo agreed to an interview at our offices.We never heard from Evans or Zinga and to the best of our knowledge neither candidate even came to Morrison.Mike Boland and Steve Haring each agreed to an interview at our offices. Jerry Mitchell we did not hear from. Senneff did not respond to our interview offer however John Hauptman did agree and visited us for an interview.

We understand the newness of our online magazine may not be regarded as important to some candidates and we applaud the decisions by those 4 candidates who visited us.Our audience is informed and growing and representative of Morrison and the Morrison area including residents serving in the military overseas. Each viewer of Thecity1.com who read those four (4) interviews we believe became more acquainted and more knowledgable as to how to cast their vote on Nov 2.

We found the format of the five (5) written questions and the onsite verbal questions to be both informative as well as issue decisive. Voters trying to decide on Boland versus Haring could print each interview and readily see some important distinctions how each would solve the education funding crisis in Illinois.The interviews with Hauptman and Manzullo were very informative and each gave as much time as we wished.We feel it is very telling that their opponents never responded to our interview requests.

We invite each viewer prior to Tuesday November 2 to reread each of the interviews, now running in our "Archives" news section under "Government" in case you havn't yet made up your mind.Please remember that with your vote you are telling that person you have the confidence in them to spend your tax dollars wisely whether as a judge or state official or a United States Congressman.Thecity1.com will always maintain as close a relationship with our political leaders as they will allow so that we can report fairly. We will also keep an independent view of election races without favoritism or endorsements.

by Bob Vaughn, theCity1.com
October 31, 2004