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| Farouk Shami |
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| Bill White |
Leading Democratic candidates in the primary race for Texas governor convene for their first live debate on Monday, February 8 at 7:00 p.m. The Texas Debates: Race for Governor will broadcast to millions statewide on public and commercial television and radio and online at texasdebates.org. The debate includes former Houston Mayor Bill White and Texas businessman Farouk Shami.
There are five other candidates on the Democratic primary ballot: Alma Aguado, Felix Alvarado, William C. Dear, Clement Glenn and Star Locke. After careful review, KERA determined these candidates do not meet the Criteria for Candidate Participation in KERA Broadcast Debates to participate in the forum on Monday, February 8, 2010.
Additional biographies of the final candidates and panelists will be posted here during the week prior to the debate.
The Texas Debates will air live on KERA-TV, KERA-FM and TXA 21 (KTXA-TV). KTXA-TV will include analysis of the debate in their newscast at 8:00 p.m. KUVN Univision 23 will air the debate in Spanish on Saturday, February 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
KERA-FM will broadcast analysis of the debate in the half-hour special The Texas Debates and the Democratic Primary hosted by Shelley Kofler at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 9. The roundtable discussion includes Fort Worth Star-Telegram Columnist Bud Kennedy and SMU Political Science Professor Cal Jillson.
Krys Boyd, host of KERA’s interview talk show Think, will lead a roundtable discussion of the issues and debate analysis on Friday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. on KERA-TV. Joining Krys are Fort Worth Star-Telegram Columnist Bud Kennedy and SMU Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Professor Dr. Rita Kirk. The debate will repeat on KERA-TV at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, February 14, followed by Think at 11:30 a.m., and again on Monday, February 15 at 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. respectively.
The Texas Debates is produced by KERA in partnership with CBS 11 (KTVT-TV) and TXA 21 (KTXA-TV), Star-Telegram, KUVN Univision 23, The Texas Association of Broadcasters (TAB), Texas State Networks and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
The debate will be moderated by CBS 11 News Anchor Karen Borta who will also take questions via social media. KUVN Univision 23 Reporter María Renée Barillas will host questions from voters in the live audience. Questions will also be posed by panelists Shelley Kofler, KERA-FM and KERA-TV and Dave Montgomery of the Star-Telegram.
The Texas Debates will originate from the CBS-11/TXA-21 studios, located at 5233 Bridge Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76103-1399. The program will be distributed at no charge to all commercial and public radio and television stations statewide as a public service, courtesy of the Texas Association of Broadcasters (TAB). Stations have the option of taking the broadcast live or delaying it. The broadcast will be available in English and Spanish and will be closed captioned. The broadcast can be heard in Spanish on the SAP channel of the debate feed. Real-time translation and closed captioning are also provided by TAB, a service it has contributed for broadcast debates of statewide candidates since 1998.
The Texas Debates will be streamed live at texasdebates.org. The Web site will also provide a list of stations carrying the debate as that information becomes available, profiles of the candidates and the pressroom arrangements. Site visitors will also be able to submit questions for the candidates by e-mail. Spanish language translation of the debate will be streamed online after broadcast at texasdebates.org and univision.com.
Details for media wanting to cover or broadcast the event can be found here.
The Texas Debates are made possible, in part, by AARP.
