** TUESDAY 7PM ON NY1: FIRST-EVER BOTTOM-UP MAYORAL OPEN DEBATE **
De Blasio, Malliotakis, & Dietl Face Off in First-Ever Mayoral Open Debate in NYC
Fresh Off Major Success in 2016 Presidential Debates, Open Debate Coalition Partners with NY1, Politico, Others for First-in-the-Nation Open Debate for Mayor
50% of Questions to be Chosen from Top Questions Submitted and Voted On By the Public at OpenDebateQuestions.com
Tuesday at 7pm on NY1 News, New York’s mayoral candidates will face off in the first-ever, bottom-up mayoral Open Debate. The October 10 debate will be between New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), Nicole Malliotakis (R), and Bo Dietl (I). Moderators will dedicate half of the 90-minute debate to top questions submitted and voted on by the public at the bottom-up platform, OpenDebateQuestions.com.
Over 33,000 votes have been cast on user-submitted questions. Some of the top questions cover issues like homelessness, housing issues, Vision Zero, police reform, and recycling.
Lilia Tamm Dixon, director of the Open Debate Coalition said: “The Open Debate Coalition is very excited to bring our bottom-up format to the local level after great success in having questions from the public included in presidential, governor, and senate debates in 2016. New York City will help us prove that Open Debates should be the new norm in American politics — inserting the will of the people more into races for President, Congress, Governor, Legislature, Mayor, and other offices.”
WHAT:
- First bottom-up Open Debate ever held at the city level, for New York mayor.
WHO:
- New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D)
- Nicole Malliotakis (R)
- Bo Dietl (I)
WHEN:
- 7pm ET, Tuesday, October 10
WHERE:
- Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
LIVESTREAM:
- Available at NY1.com.
The same platform will also be used to source questions from the public for next week’s public advocate and comptroller debates, on Oct. 16 and 17, respectively.
The cross-partisan Open Debate Coalition is partnering with NY1 News, Politico, WNYC, Citizens Union, Intelligence Squared, the Latino Leadership Institute, and Civic Hall on this historic project.
Question submission and voting is now open at OpenDebateQuestions.com and lasts through 12 noon on Monday, October 16, just before the public advocate debate. Anyone across the nation can submit and vote on questions. Only New York City votes will be counted when selecting the top 40 questions, but others nationwide can cast votes to impact which questions are trending on the site — influencing which questions voters see and vote on most.
The Open Debate Coalition made history last year when it was prominently credited as a source of questions in two presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. After 3.6 million votes were cast online, ABC’s Martha Raddatz and Fox’s Chris Wallace cited the Open Debate Coalition by name during the live debates in front of their combined audience of more than 100 million people, and asked questions from the coalition’s voting platform. Open Debates for Senate and Governor were also held last year.
The cross-partisan Open Debate Coalition was formed during the 2008 election cycle, and includes Americans for Tax Reform, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, FreedomWorks, MoveOn, Faith & Freedom Coalition, the National Organization of Women, Young Republicans, Young Democrats, craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Electronic Frontier Foundation President Cindy Cohn, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and many more (See full list of coalition members here).
Prominent national and local promotion of NYC Open Debate voting:
