Silicon Valley Congressman Mike Honda (D-San Jose) faces challenger Ro Khanna tonight in their first and only debate before Election Day.
The 75-minute showdown between the two Democratic 17th Congressional District candidates will be hosted by NBC Bay Area, KQED, The Huffington Post and San Jose State University. It will air live at 6:30pm on NBC affiliate KNTV.
It will also be live-streamed on NBC's website. Join the Twitter conversation under the hashtag #CA17Debate. People can also submit questions by going to the news station's Facebook page.
Honda ducked invitations to debate Khanna for months before agreeing to face him in a public forum—the day absentee ballots are sent out.
The Mercury News has called the event too structured—since topics were decided ahead of time—and knocked organizers for not inviting their political reporter, Josh Richman, to sit on the panel. The newspaper also urged panelists to ask about leaked emails San Jose Inside first reported that show Honda's congressional office coordinated with the campaign in violation of House rules, as well as had staffers run personal errands on House time.
SJSU political science professor Melinda Jackson, who will pose questions to the candidates, called the Honda-Khanna contest a key race to watch.
“This race is one of the hottest in the nation for a couple of reasons,” Jackson said in a statement. “First of all, it pits two Democrats against each other—a popular seven-term incumbent backed by the party establishment and a young challenger with the endorsement of many Silicon Valley tech firms. So it is both a generational contest, and an old-guard versus new-guard battle."
“and knocked organizers for not inviting their political reporter, Josh Richman, to sit on the panel.”
This isn’t 1990. Newspapers are irrelevant. Get over yourselves, Merc.
Ro, has no credibility! Critisium, was his strongest position.
Mike Honda was a shining star.
> SJSU political science professor Melinda Jackson, who will pose questions to the candidates, called the Honda-Khanna contest a key race to watch.
I love the chutzpah of Professor Jackson’s webpage:
http://www.sjsu.edu/people/melinda.jackson/expert/
Under “Areas of Expertise”, she has a little checkbox indicating that she is a “Media Source”.
I wonder if she asked any questions at the Great Honda-Khanna debate that began with the premise:
“Mrs. Honda: Media sources have suggested that there are rumors that you have been seen with goats wearing lingerie. What is your reaction to those media reports?”
I’m actually registered to vote in a different congressional district at the moment, but do enjoy the political theater sports. So Honda earned his pension, but wants to stay in power for what? And Khanna wants to rise to power for what? Just wondering?
Because they can. And you wonder why we waste our money and take it up the behind to pay for these idiots in taxes.. Because big money support these idiots to get what they want at our expense.
Wow!
This over-hyped event disappeared faster than a fart in a hurricane.
What was this suppose to achieve anyway?
Progressive Democrat Tweedledee vs. Progressive Democrat Tweedledum.
Did anyone attend this snoozer?
Were there any actual voters there, other than the spear carriers and apple polishers for the candidates?
Is there any evidence that ANYONE other than the broadcast engineer watch the TV broadcast?
Apparently, there was so little news generated by this non-event that the news organs didn’t even bother to try to make something up.
Probably, that means that Honda “won”.