Super Bowl Update

Tuesday, Nov. 6, as you know, is Election Day, and in keeping with established tradition, JDTVB will not be published on that day.

Mrs. Newkirk and I will both be doing our civic duty as precinct workers here in Daviess County, and we both encourage all of you to vote on Tuesday or beforehand if that option is available to you.

We'll resume our normal schedule on Wednesday, Nov. 7.

UPDATE, 6:11 p.m.:  No sooner had I posted the 6:10 update ... the debate finally hit the air.

UPDATE, 6:10 p.m.:  Apparently there is a technical issue preventing the debate from being broadcast on WNIN and 14Xtra.  No luck with radio (WNIN-FM) or online (tristatehomepage.com), either, at least at this point.

The three men who are in the running for Indiana's highest office will meet for their final broadcast debate of the 2012 election cycle tonight at 6 p.m. CT (7 ET).

Libertarian Rupert Boneham, Democrat John Gregg and Republican Mike Pence, who are looking to take over for outgoing Gov. Mitch Daniels, will appear at the studios of WFWA-PBS 39 in Fort Wayne for tonight's debate, which will be seen and/or heard on the following stations in Southwestern Indiana:

UPDATE, 7 p.m.:  The Libertarian candidate, Bart Gadau, did not come to Vincennes for the debate.

The candidates for Indiana's 8th District U.S. House seat are scheduled to debate the issues in Vincennes at 7 p.m. CT (8 ET) this evening.

The incumbent, Republican Larry Bucshon, will face off against Democratic candidate Dave Crooks and Libertarian Bart Gadau in tonight's broadcast debate, which is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Knox and Vigo Counties.

The debate will be held at Vincennes University and televised live on WVUT-TV 22.1 and on the radio on WVUB-91.1 FM.  Online viewers can see the debate by clicking here.

The three men who are in the running for Indiana's highest office will meet for the second of three broadcast debates tonight at 6 p.m. CT (7 ET).

Libertarian Rupert Boneham, Democrat John Gregg and Republican Mike Pence, who are looking to take over for outgoing Gov. Mitch Daniels, will appear at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center in South Bend for tonight's debate, which will be seen and/or heard on the following outlets in Southwestern Indiana:

The candidates will meet for one final statewide-broadcast debate at the studios of WFWA-TV in Fort Wayne. That debate is scheduled for next Thursday night, Oct. 25.

The three men vying to replace longtime U.S. Senator Richard Lugar will face off for the first time tonight, and the event will be broadcast live on TV and radio.

Democratic Congressman Joe Donnelly, Libertarian Andrew Horning and Republican State Treasurer Richard Mourdock will meet in Indianapolis at the studios of WFYI for the first of their two debates.  This evening's forum will air at 6 p.m. CT (7 ET) and will be seen and/or heard on the following outlets in Southwestern Indiana:

Following tonight's debate, Donnelly, Horning and Mourdock will meet for one final statewide-broadcast debate at IU Southeast in New Albany. That debate is scheduled for one week from Tuesday night.

It's already been an incredibly expensive political campaign by Indiana standards, but the race for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat that's soon to be vacated by Richard Lugar is getting even more costly, WAMW Radio reports this morning.

Crossroads GPS, a Republican group founded in part by well-known political strategists Ed Gillespie and Karl Rove, has booked $2 million worth of airtime across the state.  The ads, which will no doubt support Republican candidate Richard Mourdock, are scheduled to run during the last two weeks of this month.

WAMW reports that more than $10 million has been spent on the race already by the Mourdock campaign, the campaign of Democratic Congressman Joe Donnelly, and outside groups supporting both candidates.

To what effect those millions have made a difference is debatable. Polls continue to show Mourdock and Donnelly locked in a dead heat, as they have since Mourdock upset Lugar back in May's primary election.

Starting tonight, KET continues its longstanding tradition of providing viewers statewide with the opportunity to hear directly from candidates in political races. Candidates in November’s races have been invited to appear on Kentucky Tonight, with host Bill Goodman, in the weeks leading up to Election Day 2012.

The program tonight will feature the candidates for Kentucky's 2nd and 5th Congressional Districts and will air at 7 p.m. CT on KET. The program will also stream live and be archived online at ket.org.

Tonight's scheduled guests, for the 2nd District seat, are Craig Astor (L), incumbent Rep. Brett Guthrie (R) and David Lynn Williams (D).  The 5th District candidates are incumbent Rep. Hal Rogers (R) and Kenneth Stepp (D).

An integral part of the Kentucky Tonight series, viewer participation is welcomed and encouraged. Viewers with questions for the candidates may send e-mail, including name and town or county, to kytonight@ket.org or use the online message form at ket.org/kentuckytonight. The phone number for viewer calls during the program is 800-494-7605. Viewers may also send questions to Goodman on Twitter at @BillKET or use hashtag #kytonight.

Murray State University's public radio station, WKMS-91.3 FM, will air several candidate forums featuring Western Kentucky state House and Senate candidates beginning Oct. 5.

The forums, which will be hosted by WKMS news director Chad Lampe and Morning Edition host and news producer Todd Hatton, will air each Friday during Sounds Good with Tracy Ross and Friends between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. CT.

WKMS also will air KET's Congressional candidate forums each Tuesday during October at 2 p.m. CT, and will broadcast NPR's coverage of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates.  The Presidential debates will air on Oct. 3, 16 and 22 at 8 p.m. CT, and the Vice-Presidential debate from Centre College in Danville, Ky., will air on Oct. 11 at 8 p.m. CT.

In addition to WKMS, the above programming will be heard on WKMD-90.9 FM in Madisonville, and WKMT-89.5 FM in Fulton, which simulcast WKMS.

Beginning in October, KET continues its longstanding tradition of providing viewers statewide with the opportunity to hear directly from candidates in political races. Candidates in November’s races have been invited to appear on Kentucky Tonight, with host Bill Goodman, in the weeks leading up to Election Day 2012.

The Kentucky Tonight programs featuring candidate discussions will air Mondays, Oct. 1–29, at 7 p.m. CT on KET. The programs will also stream live and be archived online at ket.org. The invited candidates and schedules are: 

October 1: This program is divided into two parts.

An integral part of the Kentucky Tonight series, viewer participation is welcomed and encouraged. Viewers with questions for the candidates may send e-mail, including name and town or county, to kytonight@ket.org or use the online message form at ket.org/kentuckytonight. The phone number for viewer calls during the program is 800-494-7605. Viewers may also send questions to Goodman on Twitter at @BillKET or use hashtag #kytonight.

KET will broadcast PBS NewsHour coverage of results and analysis on election night, along with updates from the KET studios of Kentucky congressional races on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

Voters in Southwestern Indiana who want to learn more about the candidates for the 8th District House seat and seats in the Statehouse will have the opportunity to do so this week as WNIN-TV and the Courier & Press team up to present candidate interviews on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7 p.m. CT.

Eric Bradner, the newspaper's Statehouse reporter, will interview the candidates.

First up, on Tuesday night, Bradner will speak with the 8th District candidates — incumbent Congressman Dr. Larry Bucshon (R), Dave Crooks (D) and Bart Gadau (L).

Then, on Thursday night, the candidates for the following State House and Senate seats will appear on TV:

Also on the ballot this year, as many know, is the proposal to consolidate the governments of the city of Evansville and Vanderburgh County.   It's a hot topic, and one with strong arguments on both sides of the debate.  On Wednesday night at 7 on WNIN, a forum will air discussing both the pros and cons.

Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and Greg Wathen of the Economic Development Coalition of Southwestern Indiana will represent YES! for Unification, which favors the proposal. Vanderburgh County Treasurer Rick Davis and Bruce Ungethiem will represent CORE (Citizens Opposed to Reorganization in Evansville) — a group which, as the name implies, opposes the consolidation movement.

A panel of local journalists including Randy Wheeler of WIKY-FM, Micah Schweizer of WNIN-FM and Jay Young of the Courier & Press will ask questions of the YES! and CORE representatives.

What do today’s young people think about the upcoming election? A special edition of Education Matters, in partnership with Kentucky Youth Advocates, features a panel of Kentucky high school students discussing the election issues that matter most to them. The program airs Thursday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. CT (8 ET) on KET immediately before the vice-presidential debate at Centre College in Danville, which begins at 8 p.m. CT (9 ET), also on KET.

Student Voices, Election 2012 features guest host Renee Shaw and five student panelists from Danville, Elizabethtown, Lexington, and Louisville talking about topics that are important to them in this year's election. The program also goes behind the scenes in Danville and at Centre to look at the activities and preparations that are taking place leading up to the debate.

Teachers can visit the Education Matters website at ket.org/educationmatters to access a packet of classroom materials on this year’s election. The classroom materials were developed by Kentucky Youth Advocates and education graduate students at Bellarmine University.

Hearst Television is launching Election 2012, a mobile app featuring up-to-the-minute and in-depth election-related national content as well as content from the company’s news stations in 25 markets stretching from Portland, Maine, to Honolulu, including CBS affiliate WLKY-32 in Louisville.

The advertising-supported Election 2012 app is available for free in the iTunes Store for iPhone users and the Google Play Store for Android users.

“This app should come in handy not only for voters in the 25 Hearst Television news markets, but for any political observer interested in the latest developments in closely contested presidential-election states... and in states hosting tight Senate races, like Massachusetts – in all of which states Hearst Television has leading news stations and websites,” said Roger Keating, SVP of Hearst Television. 

Each station’s local content is fed to the app using the content management system of Hearst Television partner company Internet Broadcasting.