Ed Asner to co-moderate Cambria candidates forum; two incumbents refuse to attend
Ed Asner of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Lou Grant” fame will co-moderate a candidates forum for the Cambria Community Services District on Thursday at the Cambria Pines Lodge.
Although Asner will be there, two of the candidates — incumbents Greg Sanders and board President Gail Robinette — won’t.
Candidates who have confirmed they will attend the 6 p.m. forum, according to co-moderator Christina Tobin of the Free and Equal Election Foundation, are incumbent Amanda Rice, along with challengers Harry Farmer, Tom Kirkey, DeWayne Lee, Jeff Walters and write-in candidate Steve Kniffen.
Tobin has been critical of the incumbents, particularly Sanders, during public comment periods at CCSD board meetings.
Asner is co-moderating the event at Tobin’s request. She said in an email that the two met through mutual friends in the civil rights movement.
“We are honored to have this entertainment icon participate in our CCSD Open Forum,” Tobin said. “I am fortunate to call him my friend.”
Sanders and Robinette have refused to participate in the event and took out a full-page ad in The Cambrian last week, stating in part, “We believe that Ms. Tobin has disqualified herself from sponsoring and moderating a CCSD candidate forum by repeatedly revealing her biases in this election.”
The ad stated that Sanders and Robinette “have asked the League of Women Voters to moderate an unbiased, nonpartisan candidate forum in Cambria.”
Robinette, a retired educator, was appointed to the board in 2011 and elected to a full term the following year. Sanders, an attorney, was appointed to the board after director Muril Clift resigned to move out of the district. He previously served on the board from 2002 to 2010.
Tobin runs the nonprofit Free and Equal Elections Foundation, which has sponsored national debates, including a 2012 event in Chicago co-moderated by broadcast journalist Larry King that featured presidential candidates from the Constitution, Green, Justice and Libertarian parties.
Tobin’s attorney, Alicia I. Dearn, submitted an open letter to the CCSD board and The Cambrian stating that Tobin’s foundation is “committed to providing free, nonpartisan, open forums between political candidates to facilitate honest policy debate and constructive dialogue.”
Asner, 86, played Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” from 1970 to 1977, at which time he received his own show “Lou Grant,” which ran from 1977 to 1982. He also appeared in the miniseries “Roots” and provided the voice of Carl Fredricksen in the 2009 Academy Award-winning animated film “Up.”
Politically, Asner served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, was a political activist who has supported the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, and has worked to establish a single-payer health care system in California.
The forum will be streamed live on the Free and Equal Facebook page.
This story was originally published September 26, 2016 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Ed Asner to co-moderate Cambria candidates forum; two incumbents refuse to attend."