Columbus Monthly / November 2010 / My gig at the gov's debate

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My gig at the gov's debate

I’ve been invited to moderate candidates’ forums and spoken before all kinds of civic and school groups. I’ve appeared on televised news programs to analyze legislation or elections.

But last month’s gubernatorial debate at COSI between Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat seeking reelection Nov. 2, and Republican challenger John Kasich of Westerville was the most celebrated duty I’ve tackled on live television.

It takes a decent amount of makeup and rehearsals to transform a 30-year newspaper reporter—now working for the Cincinnati Enquirer—into a convincing on-air personality.

I didn’t realize how much work—more than 10 hours worth—goes into getting ready for a live debate.

Before the Sept. 14 event, three other Statehouse reporters and I met at the WBNS-10TV studios shared with the Ohio News Network, host of the first of two debates. There, with Channel 10 anchor Jerry Revish and three producers, we read our suggested questions, vetoed some and added others. We were told there was time for 12 questions if the hour-long debate ran like clockwork.

Four days before the debate we were told Revish would not be able to redirect questions. So if Strickland or Kasich didn’t answer the question, it would be up to reporters to press them. But, in reality, the format didn’t lend itself to us doing that without disrupting the flow or appearing rude.

During one meeting, my contact lens kept popping out and I was unable to read our scripts. The producer bumped the type up for debate night and I got a fresh set of lenses.

We had to arrive about two hours before the debate, where we were handed a “top secret’’ folder of the final questions, which weren’t shared with campaigns. We did a read-through and walked around a waiting room reading aloud as our colleagues got makeup. A final rehearsal, with TV crews playing the roles of candidates—and making up their own funny replies—went off without a hitch.

But then a minute before airtime, Revish’s earpiece started to blast deafening feedback. A production crew member promised it would be fixed. “It better get fixed,” Revish said. It was the first time I got nervous, and I nearly forgot to look in the correct camera during introductions. With 10 seconds to go, they silenced Revish’s earpiece.

Including one question from Revish, we made it through 11 questions, which meant Reginald Fields, the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s bureau chief, and I only got to ask two apiece. (Mark Niquette of the Dispatch and Laura Bischoff of the Dayton Daily News posed the rest.) I asked Kasich why Lehman Brothers would hire a congressman with no Wall Street experience. “I’m glad you asked that, Jon,” he answered, as if I’d tossed him a softball. He clearly was ready and hit a home run answering the question the way he wanted to answer it. I also asked what the candidates liked or didn’t like about the other. That yielded some bit of candor.

It seemed like a lot of work for questions that the candidates mostly dodged. But my personal profile got a bit of a boost: Folks at the downtown building in which I work commented on my appearance for weeks.