Native American Press/Ojibwe News

Cultural Voices: Interview of Mayoral Candidates by Journalists of Color

By Jean Pagano - October 12, 2001
Journalists from four minority publications will be interviewing mayoral candidates from Minneapolis and Saint Paul on Twin Cities Public Television on October 12 and October 26, 2001. Journalists Nghi Huyhn (Asian American Press), Stephenetta Harmon (Insight News), Lorena Duarte (La Prensa), and Clara Niiska (Native American Press/Ojibwe News) will be interviewing mayoral candidates Jay Benanav and Randy Kelly for the Saint Paul’s mayoral race and Sharon Sayles Benton and R. T. Rybak for the Minneapolis mayor’s contest.

The journalists will first interview Minneapolis mayoral candidates Sharon Sayles Benton and R.T Rybak on October 12. The second interview for Saint Paul candidates for mayor Jay Benanav and Randy Kelly will be held on October 26. The interviews will last for one half hour. Mary Lahammer will moderate each of the interviews. Candidates will be asked a series of questions and will be asked not to give lengthy answers. Each of the four journalists will be given approximately the same amount of time to present questions to the various candidates. Journalists will draw straws to determine the order in which questions will be presented.

Prior to the interviews, community forum organizers (Jim Cook, Bruce Corrie, Mario Duarte, and Al McFarlane) along with the journalists will have met to agree upon which questions will be asked of the candidates. Questions of interest to all represented groups will be distributed evenly among the various journalists so that no duplication occurs. Community representatives will then choose which questions are important to their representative communities, and those queries will be assigned to individual journalists.

The Minnesota Minority Media Coalition sponsors the Cultural Voices program. Attenedees at the Star Tribune planning meeting included Jim Cook, Lorena Duarte, Mario Duarte, Hector Garcia, David Glass, Stephenetta Harmon, Brendan Henehan, Nghi Huyhn, Georgia Lickness, Clara Niiska, Art Serotoff, Brad Stokman, Mike Wassenaar, and Larry Werner.