Tulsa County Republican Men's Club is hosting a debate at the Fountains Restaurant today at 11:45 am. (Lunch buffet is $8.) Jim Hewgley will be speaking in favor of sound economic policy and common sense; Mayor LaFortune will be speaking in opposition.

Tonight at 8 pm on KWHB (cable channel 7, UHF channel 47 for those with rabbit ears), there will be a debate between myself and former County Assessor Jack Gordon (again speaking on behalf of sound policy and common sense), and Mayor LaFortune and his aide Karen Keith speaking in opposition. Bob Losure will moderate, and the panelists will be William Tisdale, Bill Paddock (KWHB general manager), Henry Primeaux (owner of Crown Bristow), and Carole Lambert of KTUL. Charles Biggs of the Tulsa Beacon, and former Councilor Todd Huston, who hosts a radio show on KCFO, were originally scheduled to be on the panel, but they were dropped. (UPDATE: Charlie Biggs was added back in -- see below.)

William Tisdale is an interesting choice. He's a fine person -- I met him when he was working for Carlton Pearson's mayoral campaign -- and he is clearly on the vote yes side. In fact, William is in a video for the vote yes campaign, which you can find on their website. (Here's a direct link to the QuickTime version of the video.)

I don't know for certain about the positions of the other three panelists, although Henry Primeaux was an enthusiastic supporter of the Tulsa Project and Tulsa Time, and I would guess that he backs the Billion-Dollar Blank Check, too. (If you know for certain that he or the other panelists have taken a public stand, please e-mail me with the information -- blog at batesline dot com.) Interesting that two people who have asked tough questions about the tax package have been dropped from the panel.

Tune in tonight, and we'll see if this panel serves up softballs to the Mayor and his assistant, or if they ask tough questions of both sides, to the edification of the public.

UPDATE: In the end, Charlie Biggs was added back to the panel, and all the panelists asked good questions that gave us jumping off points for discussing the issues. The format -- response from one side, response from the other, rebuttal from the first side -- allowed for some give and take, and made it a real debate. My thanks to Bill Paddock and KWHB for making this event come to pass. Thanks to Bob Losure and the panelists. Thanks to my debate partner, Jack Gordon, who did a great job. And thanks also to Bill LaFortune and Karen Keith for making a debate possible by showing up.

One more item: Henry Primeaux mentioned that he's got a lot of concerns about this proposal and is still undecided.

If you missed it, here's the replay schedule:

Monday, September 1, 7 pm, KWHB (UHF channel 47, Cox cable channel 7)

Monday, September 8, 7:30 pm, KWHB (UHF channel 47, Cox cable channel 7)