Monday, July 28, 2008

Lake County Radio Personalities Debate Pros and Cons of a Constitutional Convention

On Tuesday evening, July 29, Lake County citizens will be treated to what promises to be a heated debate regarding the pros and cons of an Illinois constitutional convention (commonly known as a "con-con"). The event will be held at Austin’s Saloon & Eatery on Peterson Road in Libertyville. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the program running from 6 - 8 p.m. A cash bar will be available, with free pizza after the debate during a "Meet & Greet and Straw Poll." The debate will also feature an open mike Q&A portion, and the whole thing will be simulcast on WKRS Radio, AM 1220. You can download the event flyer here.

The debate will be between WKRS radio personalities Al Salvi and Bruno Behrend, with Salvi taking the NO! position and Behrend taking the YES! position. The two men share the 10-11:45 am time slot on WKRS, with Behrend on Mondays & Fridays and Salvi on Tuesdays & Thursdays.

For those of you who are wondering what a con-con is, and why you should care, the program PR states as follows:

Should there be a Constitutional Convention?

Few Illinois citizens are aware that the most important vote they can cast this coming November is whether or not Illinois will hold a Constitutional Convention. This is a once in a 20-year opportunity for Illinois citizens to amend, or completely rewrite, the ground rules between citizens and their government.

How Will a Convention Work?

If 60% of the people vote “yes” on the question of whether to have a convention, the next session of the legislature will provide for the election of 2 delegates from each Senate District, (118) along with the funding and the location of the Convention. Once convened, any changes approved by delegates are then presented to the voters for ratification.


The program is jointly sponsored by the Lake County Republican Central Committee, the Republican Assembly of Lake County, WKRS and Austin's.


Admission is free!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why am I not surprised that Salvi is taking the No position? I'm interested to hear his logic.

Anonymous said...

Not a fan of Al Salvi or his wing of the party that have made us irrelevant in the suburbs.

Anonymous said...

Attended this event last night. Both Bruno Behrend and Al Salvi did a great job arguing their positions both pro and con. The downside were that some of the questions asked were more argumentative at times than informative but I guess that is what happens with live radio. They asked for questions and a few knuckleheads instead gave speeches!

Interesting how everyone (and I mean EVERYONE!) present including the two debaters admitted that Illinois State Government is completely broken and in serious need of a change. Behrend argued for constitutional changes, and Salvi argued for changes in who we elect to office.

They both used twists of Rich Miller's hen house analogy (don't have the foxes guard the hen house and ask us for more hens vs. the foxes are already in the hen house and we need to rescue them).

Congratulations are in order to the Lake County Republican Central Committee and Republican Assembly of Lake County for sponsoring this event.

Louis G. Atsaves

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the rundown, Lou. I didnt catch the broadcast as I'm in Florida right now and too busy workin' on my tan! But not too busy to pop in once in a while!