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Fallout from the debate where one candidate may have gotten the questions in advance
By adamg on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 12:12am
Josh Dawson is a member of the Ward 5 Democratic Committee (Back Bay, Beacon Hill and Bay Village). And he's a bit perturbed over the way 3rd Suffolk state-rep hopeful Aaron Michlewitz may have gotten questions from a Ward 5/Ward 4 debate in advance:
... It's disappointing that our Committee's reputation could be tarnished for a short time because of this mess. As a member of the Executive Committee, I will push to have a meeting as soon as possible to discuss this situation and fix any problems with the forum/endorsement process, so we can get back to doing the things that make our Committee great ...
He also says that despite what ward Chairman Rob Whitney seemed to tell the Phoenix, neither he nor at least three other members got the questions in advance.
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Comments
Maybe all debate questions
Maybe all debate questions should be disclosed to everybody ahead of any debates/forums, at least at this level or lower. That would be my suggestion to these guys, that way they will not have to worry about anything like this happening again in the future.
Lets be honest that yes having knowledge at the tip of your tongue is a great thing, but most of the work done at the State House happens over periods of time where someone has the ability to research and hone an answer. If the questions are prepared in advance I do not see the harm in handing them out in advance. The other option is to hand out 10 questions to the candidates and then randomly select 5 for the forum. I had a professor that used to do that before a final, he knew we could never fully materialize a complete essay for all ten questions but it still gave us time to do some extended reading on those topics so our answers would be fact based and we could show off our ability to research.