<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1476" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jeff Harkins:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Please control that righteous
indignation. You are aiming it in the wrong direction.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Let's go back to the original
point in Lois Blackburn's editorial.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> The local Republican Party has
no problem with a candidate forum organized by a Republican candidate (that's
you) or a forum organized by a Republican office-holder (that's Paul Kimmell,
Republican Commissioner and director of Chamber of Commerce) but believe
participating in a forum organized by a local progressive community group (MCA)
is signing a pact with the devil.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> To try and find a legitimate
difference, you explain your role in the Moscow Lion's Club forum. You say
that your role was:</FONT></DIV>
<DL>
<DD><I>(1) to select two dates for the forum,
<DD>(2) compose an email inviting local candidates to the forum,
<DD>(3) notified club members of the dates,
<DD>(4) send a reminder to candidates of the forum.</I> </DD></DL>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Well that makes sense.
Yes, that would be the responsibility of someone organizing a candidate
forum. And that is exactly what Bruce Livingston, the MCA representative,
did. Both you and Bruce set up the forum. You both invited
the same candidates. You both publicized the event. Neither you
nor Bruce expected to serve as moderator (I do not know who will moderate the
Lions Club forum, but the MCA moderator was selected from a list offered by
Nathan Alford of neutral non-partisan community members.) </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> So why would you wrap yourself
in such at tizzy of false integrity and refuse to participate in the MCA
debate?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> What are you Republicans so
afraid of? Why are you so willing to go to candidate forums all over the
county and then refuse to go to this one-on-one candidate debate in
Moscow?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </FONT> <FONT face=Arial
size=2>BL</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=jeffh@moscow.com href="mailto:jeffh@moscow.com">Jeff Harkins</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=mboehneabm@yahoo.com
href="mailto:mboehneabm@yahoo.com">Mark Boehne President Moscow Lions Club</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, October 21, 2004 11:37
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] MCA Debates</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Many have inquired about the reasons that some candidates are
not participating in the MCA debate. I have decided not to participate
in the Monday evening debate. And I agree that you are entitled to have
an explanation of my decision.<BR><BR>For some time, I have been intrigued by
the MCA. It set a bold agenda for itself and I was impressed by
that. But organizations are defined not only by their missions, goals
and objectives, but also by the deeds of their members.<BR><BR>First, I had
hoped that a reasonable compromise would be reached with MCA that would
address the concerns raised about the original format, but unfortunately that
has not occurred. And then today, Ms. Blackburn, President of MCA in her
published editorial (Daily News) made it very clear as to the kind of
shenanigans and pressures being applied to force candidates to participate in
an event that had questionable protocols which could be unfair to the
participating candidates.<BR><BR>Ms. Blackburn noted:
<DL>
<DD><FONT face=arial size=2><I>For an example of possible bias in the
organization of a candidate forum, Schroeder need look no farther than a
representative of his own party, Jeff Harkins, Republican candidate for
Latah County commissioner. Harkins, as the program chairman for the Moscow
Lions Club, organized the club's candidate forum this year. </I></DD></DL>It
is true that I am a member of the Moscow Central Lions Club - and I am proud
of the work that we do. It is also true that I am the Program Chair for
the fall, 2004. But what Ms. Blackburn did not tell you is that before I
accepted the Program Chair responsibilities I advised Lion President Mark
Boehne that:</FONT>
<DL>
<DD><I>I would be willing to serve, provided that he would agree to serve as
moderator for the two (2) sessions I would schedule for the local
candidates. He agreed to those terms. So, yes indeed, I accepted
the program chair assignment for the Moscow Central Lions Club.
</I></DD></DL>And the services I provided were:
<DL>
<DD><I>(1) to select two dates for the forum,
<DD>(2) compose an email inviting local candidates to the forum,
<DD>(3) notified club members of the dates,
<DD>(4) send a reminder to candidates of the forum.</I> </DD></DL>It is not
clear to me why Ms. Blackburn would want to try to discredit the good name of
the Moscow Central Lions Club or my service to that organization. But it is a
clear example of why I am choosing not to participate in the MCA
forum.<BR><BR>It is important for all of you to note that my specific service
to Lions was clearly articulated to Mr. Bill London two weeks ago - and to Ms.
Blackburn on Monday, October 18th.<BR><BR>Here is what I want you folks to try
to understand. I am running for a political office that I believe
demands the highest levels of integrity and principled behavior. My
interest in participating in forum events is to make myself known to folks and
to answer their questions. Obviously I am interested in having them cast
votes for me. And here is the tough part - if what you see is a
candidate that will knuckle under to this kind of negative pressure in order
to obtain votes, how can I possibly expect you to believe that I would not
knuckle under to that kind of pressure once I am in office. <BR><BR>No,
I find the statement by Ms. Blackburn to be, at best, insensitive and
inadvisable and, at worst, despicable and mean-spirited. But it remains
as a clear example of why I am choosing not to participate in the MCA
event. My participation would simply signal that their behavior here was
acceptable to me. But folks, I won't sacrifice my integrity for votes -
no political office is worth that to me.<BR><BR>As to the concerns that some
have expressed that by denying to participate, we are precluding folks from
finding out how I stand on the issues. Well to date, I have not failed
to respond to any question directed to me. If you have a question about
how I stand on an issue, write me, email me or call me!<BR><BR>My greatest
regret is that my fellow Lions have to bear this incident. They are the
finest folks - caring and unselfish - and they don't deserve to be tarred with
this brush. And I am very embarrassed that this matter has brought them
into this fray.<BR><BR>I trust this clarifies my decision.<BR><BR>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>_____________________________________________________<BR> List
services made available by First Step Internet, <BR> serving the
communities of the Palouse since 1994.
<BR>
http://www.fsr.net
<BR>
mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<BR>ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>