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A battle royale it wasn't, but Lieutenant Governor Daniel Mongiardo and Attorney General Jack Conway sparred every now and then during a forum for the Democratic U.S. Senate candidates at U of L last night. The two frontrunners took alternate hits at each other in answering the first question about the recent health care reform legislation. Conway said Mongiardo was on the wrong side of the issue. “Democrats need to stand up and be Democrats,” Conway said. “Stop and start over?” Conway said. “That's where Jim Bunning is, that's where Mitch McConnell is, that's where Rand Paul is, that's where the whole TEA party movement it—I'll tell you, that's where Jack Conway is not.” Mongiardo said Conway was distorting his position, and that he would have supported the legislation if it had been real health care reform. “I would vote for it if and only if this were a first step and I had assurances from my president that we would continue on with health care reform that would reduce the cost of health care and improve the quality of health care for everyone.” Mongiardo and Conway went at it again on the issue of gay rights and the repeal of the military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy.” Conway said he thought the policy should be repealed, and that something akin to Louisville's fairness ordinance should be replicated on the federal level. Mongiardo used about 10 seconds to say that the military leaders knew the issue the best. “I would support their decision because they understand the military better than any of us,” he said. Then he pressed Conway on the issue of gay marriage, asking if he would have supported the Kentucky Senate bill that Mongiardo introduced banning same-sex marriage. Conway's answer straddled the issue. “I abhor discrimination in all forms and I think marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman,” he said, drawing a few murmurs in the crowd. Yes (if you were wondering), there are other people running in this primary, and they were all there last night. Dr. James Buckmaster, a physician from Henderson, gave answers that made everyone wonder why he wasn't running in the Republican primary instead. Maurice Sweeney is a community business leader who grew up on a farm outside Louisville. His answers throughout the night were thoughtful and sensible, saying, among other things, that since the current economic recession took eight years to get into, it will take time to get out of. He advocated practical solutions for reducing the deficit—for example, ending Social Security benefits for the very wealthy—saying that the country has to “do more with less,” as he did on the family farm. On the issue of energy, Sweeney said that Kentucky's universities should be on the cutting edge of clean coal research. Darlene Price is a former Captain in the Military Police and former Special Agent for U.S. Customs and Border Control, as well as a veritable quote machine. She said she is in favor of campaign finance reform to end what she called “crony campaign finance.” With regard to the recession, she said former President George W. Bush is to blame more than current President Barack Obama. “George Bush took a big healthy dump all over this country for eight years, and they're acting like President Obama is just now walking out of the bathroom zipping up his pants,” she said. “We inherited this.”

Conway Mongiardo

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The Forecastle Festival announced its initial artist lineup this morning, continuing its upward trend of bigger names and bigger venues. This year's 9th annual festival will take place at Waterfront Park and is featuring The Flaming Lips, Widespread Panic, and Spoon as headlining acts. “This is a new chapter and groundbreaking time for us,” said JK McKnight, the festival's founder and manager. “We want it to be marked on everyone's calendar.” The move to Waterfront Park is a major one. Last year, Forecastle drew 23,000 people to the Belvedere—where the festival had been located since 2007—and the larger space will be able to accommodate much larger crowds. “After nine years of continuous growth, we finally have the opportunity to spread our wings and do things we've always wanted to do,” said McKnight, who called the move “a long-awaited dream come true.” The three-day festival is scheduled for July 9th-11th, and will feature The Drive-By Truckers, Bassnectar, Minus the Bear, The New Deal, Lucero, Cap'n Jazz, Ted Leo &the Pharmacists, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, Dar Williams, EOTO, Break Science, Mimosa, Mucca Pazza, Company of Thieves, Savoy, BoomBox, Two Fresh, and Morning Teleportation. The festival plans on announcing over sixty more performers in the coming weeks. McKnight said he didn't anticipate too much competition from the first-ever HullabaLOU festival, scheduled for July 23-25 at Churchill Downs, saying that there isn't much musical overlap between the festivals' respective acts. “When I heard Bon Jovi was on I just kind of shrugged and went back to work,” he said.

The festival also unveiled its promo poster.

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	davilledude   wed mar 31 2010 at 1:39 pm         ·  Great lineup! Liked his comment about Bon Jovi.
	davilledude   wed mar 31 2010 at 1:41 pm         ·  With that poster, I thought Led Zeppelin was coming.
	Strawberry Burns   wed mar 31 2010 at 2:14 pm         ·  I have never seen a band WARE A CROWD OUT in the manner that WSP did last year! What a phenomenal performance! I will miss my Black Crowes though, I was hoping for them to be back.
	Metal Armada   wed mar 31 2010 at 3:00 pm         ·  ZZzzzZZZzzzzzzZZzzz
	J.S. Holland   thu apr 01 2010 at 12:25 am         ·  I'd rather see Bon Jovi than Widespread Panic any day.
	J.S. Holland   thu apr 01 2010 at 12:26 am         ·  But, not that I'd actually cross the street to see either of them, even for free.
	little bit   thu apr 01 2010 at 1:58 am         ·  I am so thrilled about the Flaming Lips! They put on such an amazing show everytime, I love 'em!
	frogbert   thu apr 01 2010 at 1:09 pm         ·  Great poster art by Jeff Gaither!
	Prophet   sat apr 03 2010 at 12:13 am         ·  Agreed on both counts, J.S. The only one out of those worth a dollar of mine is Lucero, whom I actually like. Widespread Panic? Really? Blech
	Metal Armada   sat apr 03 2010 at 11:08 am         ·  WIDESPREAD BOREDOM
	davilledude   mon apr 05 2010 at 2:57 pm         ·  To each is own but I love the line up.

Last night's mayoral forum (on issues loosely related to sustainability, as a part of U of L's new civic involvement program called “You of L Votes”) was shaping up to pretty ho-hum. After questions about the regulations in Louisville that affect cycling, about increasing economic development (I said “loosely related to sustainability”), and about balancing the practice of “going green” with the costs involved, things heated up a little. Jason Gardner, a U of L student wearing a t-shirt that said “JESUS WAS BLACK,” asked what each candidate would do to make sure that businesses downtown are “culturally relevant.” Of course, he was asking about Fourth Street Live—about the themes of its retail stores and about its reputation as being unfriendly to people who are black. The answers that followed had the hundred or so members of the public on the edge of their seats; it was easily, in my mind, the most compelling few minutes of the entire campaign so far. While most of the candidates gave pretty safe answers, Shannon White took the issue head on. “Let's be honest” she said. “The rules at Fourth Street Live are designed to keep out blacks.” Hal Heiner did the best job of answering the question, saying it's time to “get moving on brownfields” (the effort to clean and revitalize former industrial sites) and pledging to fill in 4th Street with local businesses. Connie Marshall, as she has been doing for weeks, railed against Fourth Street Live. “When I looked at Fourth Street Live's website, all I saw were white people,” Marshall said. “And that's what's seen all over the world.” (A visit to the website bears that out, especially on the “Events” page.) Moderator Mark Hebert wrapped up the question and answer session with two show-of-hands questions. The first asked who thinks that humans are responsible for climate change—essentially “Do you believe in global warming?” Only Heiner didn't raise his hand. (He did tell me after the forum that he doesn't have enough knowledge to be able to say for certain. “I'm not a scientist,” he said, adding that he does think Louisville's air is too polluted.) The other asked who thought it would be possible to take all Metro-owned buildings off the power grid—an idea proposed by David Tandy earlier in the evening and at forums past. Hebert asked with some skepticism, giving the candidates a hypothetical time frame of 12 years—their first term as mayor and two re-election cycles—to achieve it. Predictably, everyone but Tandy followed Hebert's lead. Tandy used his closing statement to say that he would be the kind of mayor who could lead the city in initiatives like that. “We can be that type of city,” he said. “This is our time as a city to start to shake off the shackles of the status quo, and to start to embrace the dawn of a new day that is change and opportunity in this community.” It should be said that Jackie Green turned in his best performance of the campaign, steering the conversation toward real issues of sustainability with every answer. He said that it's easy for candidates to talk about these issues in the abstract, especially in sustainability-themed forums. But when it comes to making them a priority, Green said he is the only candidate who understands them well enough. “I've heard a lot of talk tonight about a 100-mile [bicycle] loop,” Green said. “There are children who live two blocks from here who will never see that loop because public transit doesn't get them out there—where are our priorities?”

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Today's forum for the mayoral candidates is brought to you by the Rosecall, the student newspaper of Assumption High School. Because of an insane schedule of events this afternoon and evening, I'm covering this forum live—news as it's happening here at Mojo. (For the record, the back-to-back-to-back events are this forum, followed by the Livable Louisville forum at the Clifton Center, followed by another mayoral forum at U of L tonight. Look for stories on both events on Mojo.) Because this is live, there's no time to dilly-dally with opening statements. Here's the scene though: here from the Democratic field are Tyler Allen, Greg Fischer, Jackie Green, Jim King, Lisa Moxley, David Tandy, and Shannon White, and from the Republican field are Hal Heiner, Jonathan Robertson, and Chris Thieneman. This is all happening in the Assumption auditorium, and it's being attended by about 100 hyper high school girls, as well as about a dozen visiting boys from St. X and Trinity, and some members of the high school press corp of Seneca High School. The tension in the room is palpable… First question: Directed at three randomly chosen candidates: How will you support the arts in Louisville? White: Arts should be considered “an economic workforce issue.” Not too specific (at all), she says that the arts will be a high priority in her administration. Allen: Drawing a distinction between “capital A” Arts and “small a” arts, saying that both need to be emphasized equally. “We need to work toward developing funding streams” to support the arts in general in the city. Moxley: “We can be even more competitive locally and nationally” when it comes to the arts, Moxley says. She's saying that her connections with the motion picture industry in California can be used to bring about “a new industry in Louisville.” Second question: To three more candidates: How will you bring more jobs to Louisville? Heiner: “That is the number one area for improvement,” he says. This has been a talking point for Heiner: that Louisville is often on the “short list” for places for companies to relocate, but never makes the cut. He says he'll use his experience to really seal the deal. Tandy: Thinks a central goal should be to grow Fortune 500 companies in Louisville. “We have to make sure we're doing our part to raise our educational attainment rates in this city,” Tandy said, changing the subject to education. In terms of business recruitment, Tandy thinks the mayor should be like a football or basketball coach. Robertson: “If we're a high tech city, we're going to create a lot of excitement,” that will bring businesses to town, Roberston said. “If we built it, they will come,” he said. Third question: To still three more candidates: What would you do as mayor to make Louisville more environmentally friendly? King: Began his answer by saying that all the candidates “could stand to lose a few pounds,” at which everyone bristled. (Allen could be heard to murmur, “Speak for yourself.”) When he took his foot out of his mouth, he went on to say that recycling and the PACE program were both very important for Louisville. Green: “The issues that separate us are public transit, land use, and creating a culture of public walkers,” he said. He's predicting that as gas prices rise (and they will), his campaign will emerge as the one that makes the best environmental sense. Fischer: Hyped his endorsement by the Sierra Club to start, and is now talking about his idea of “local food enterprise,” or LFE, zones, as one of many opportunities to become a national leader in this issue. Fourth question: To three more candidates: What aspects of Louisville will you expand to make it more competitive? Thieneman: “We don't have ski resorts, we don't have beaches,” he said, but we do have a plan for a first-class parks system. His plan for marketing is through national advertisements, like Arnold Schwarzenegger's ads for California. White: The answer is “more shopping downtown,” with an increase in the number of groceries, dry cleaners, etc., not just “shopping for shoes.” Allen: Says don't ruin our spectacular waterfront with the Ohio River Bridges Project. He says that “knowing what we know about the future of transportation,” building the downtown bridge is a terrible idea. Changing the plan would put Louisville on the map, he said. There were a handful of questions addressed to individual candidates, and those are listed below: Allen: How will you use your distinctive background? Repeated the question, essentially. Green: How will you bring about global interaction? “I don't believe we are preparing Louisville” for the problem he thinks will be approaching all cities: a decreasing supply of “cheap fuel.” Thieneman and Fischer: How will you combat mountaintop removal? Thieneman: Louisville needs to have a better representative in Frankfort, where this issue will be debated. “Coal is a very important way that we fuel our community,” he said. “I am pro-coal industry,” he said, because it is what allows Louisville to enjoy some of the lowest energy prices in the country. Fischer: Pivoted to LG&E, and his position on its potential sale. “The city needs to be at the table, looking at that, making sure we have some influence,” he said. Fischer: What will you do to help local independent business? Fischer says we need “buy local” initiatives and business incentives to help them grow. “Friends don't let friends take them to chain restaurants,” he said.

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