Atkins, Bonino square off in televised duel Sept. 12
Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel
The only competitive local election of any importance this fall will see its television debut next Wednesday.
Second Ward Councilmember Linda Atkins of Eureka will spar with challenger Joe Bonino on Sept. 12 in the latest in a series of Candidates’ Debates on Civil Liberties sponsored by the Redwood Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“The voters of Eureka actually have a contested race in this ward,” Redwood ACLU chair Greg Allen said. “The Redwood Chapter ACLU is pleased to be able to give the candidates a forum, and the voters a chance to hear and see what the candidates have to say.”
While the ACLU will get the first crack at posing questions to Atkins and Bonino, the ninety minute debate will additionally feature questions posed by the TV audience — not just by the old-school telephone hotline, but this time by e-mail and Twitter too.
An employee with Caltrans before her retirement, Atkins, newly elected the chair of the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee, is in a traditionally left-right contest with Bonino, a payroll clerk at Humboldt State University who served as treasurer of the Humboldt County Republican Central Committee.
Another treasurer will be the moderator of the contest: Peter Martin, treasurer of the Redwood ACLU and a former deputy District Attorney who now works as a civil and criminal defense attorney. Martin previously moderated an ACLU-sponsored debate between Arcata City Council candidates in 2006.
This will be the second live TV debate the ACLU has run this year out of the Community Media Center at Eureka High School — the same locale where Bonino announced his campaign last month, albeit to the chagrin of the Eureka Teachers Association, which said in a letter to the editor that they hadn’t endorsed either candidate the race.
The prior Civil Liberties debate was between the eventually victorious Rex Bohn and his opponents Cheryl Seidner and Annette De Modena, who were running for Humboldt County Supervisor in the First District. The ACLU claimed in their release that there were “more audience questions flooding in than there was time for.”
The only other Eureka Councilmember whose term expires this year is Melinda Ciarabellini in the Fourth Ward; she was appointed in 2011 to fill Mayor Frank Jager’s seat, and yet again she will win a term without an election, as no one filed to run against her by last month’s deadline. Fifth Ward Councilmember Lance Madsen is also serving without having faced a competitive election, with no one else stepping forward to run for that seat in 2010.
The debate will begin at 6 p.m. on Sept. 12, to be televised live on Access Humboldt Channel 11 and also rebroadcast through the election on Nov. 6. The number for phone-in questions is (707) 336-2258; the Redwood ACLU is reachable on Twitter @redwoodaclu and via e-mail at redwoodaclu@hotmail.com.
