Oklahoma State Democratic Party Presidential Forum
   
Photos Courtesy Oklahoma Democratic Party.
This event took place at Oklahoma State University's Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, OK on Tuesday, August 12, 2003, starting at 5:00 p.m. and ending a little after 7:00 p.m..  Gov. Dean, Sen. Edwards, Rep. Gephardt, Rep. Kucinich, Sen. Lieberman and Amb. Moseley Braun participated; Rev. Sharpton had been scheduled to appear but cancelled.  Each candidate was on stage for approximately 15 minutes alone with the two moderators, Kelly Ogle from KWTV in Oklahoma City and Terry Hood from KOTV in Tulsa.  They asked a series of questions of each candidate.

Tickets to the event were free of charge, and about 5,600 people attended.  The forum was shown on a tape delay basis exclusively on Griffin Communications affiliates KOTV-TV, Tulsa, and KWTV-TV, Oklahoma City and also carried on local NPR stations on a delayed basis.  There was a pre-forum barbeque and a post-forum reception.  Tickets to the post-forum reception were $150, which also gave priority seating on the floor at the forum.  This event was the largest fundraising event the Oklahoma Democratic Party had ever done; raising almost $140,000 between reception tickets and sponsorships.
 
2:30 p.m.   Pre-forum BBQ, sponsored by the AFL-CIO and the ODP

5:00-7:00 p.m.  Forum
     Welcome - ODP Chairman Jay Parmley
     Invocation - Dr. M.L. Jemison, Progressive National Baptist Convention
     National Anthem - Jennifer Seal (precinct chair 445-Oklahoma County)
     Remarks - Dr. David Schmidly, President of Oklahoma State University
     Remarks - Gov. Brad Henry
     Rep. Dennis Kucinich 
     Amb. Moseley Braun
     Sen. Joe Lieberman
     Rep. Dick Gephardt
     Gov. Howard Dean 
     Sen. John Edwards 

7:00-9:00 p.m.  Post-forum Reception

Copyright © 2003  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.