VCU news

By Marcia Meredith

RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Commonwealth University has launched a toll-free telephone number, Web site and email address to draw questions that Virginians want asked during the Sept. 24 debate between the commonwealth’s two U.S. Senate candidates: U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb (D) and Republican George Allen. The event, moderated by former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, will be the first televised debate for the 2000 senatorial election. Broadcast live at 8 p.m. from VCU’s Performing Arts Center, 922 Park Ave., the debate will air on Richmond’s WTVR-6, C-SPAN, WRVA radio, Roanoke’s WDBJ and other stations throughout Virginia.

To submit questions, Virginians can call 1-866-249-2607. They also can propose questions online while visiting the debate Web page at www.vcu.edu/debate or via email, debate@vcu.edu.

The citizen questions will serve as one component of the debate, which is not open to the public. Debate moderator Wilder, a distinguished professor in VCU’s Center for Public Policy, served as Virginia’s 65th governor from 1990-94. He is the nation’s first-elected African-American governor.

Recent polls have indicated that incumbent Robb and former governor Allen are in a dead heat.

Robb has served in the U.S. Senate since he was first elected in 1988. From 1982-86, Robb served as Virginia’s 64th governor. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Wisconsin in 1961 and a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1973.

In 1993, Allen was sworn in as Virginia’s 67th governor. After finishing his term as governor, he became a partner with the Richmond-based law firm McGuire Woods Battle & Boothe. Allen’s political career began when he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1983. Eight years later, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Allen earned a bachelor of arts degree in history and a law degree from the University of Virginia.

Debate panelists include Robert D. Holsworth, Ph.D., a political analyst and director of the VCU Center for Public Policy and Larry Sabato, Ph.D., a political analyst from the University of Virginia. Both Holsworth and Sabato served as panelists for the 1997 debate at VCU between gubernatorial candidates Democrat Donald S. Beyer Jr. and Republican James S. Gilmore III. Both professors are quoted regularly in the national media for their insight on state, regional and national political issues.