BANGOR, Maine — A local television station will broadcast one of the governor’s town hall meetings live from Husson University on Tuesday, Gov. Paul LePage’s office announced Friday.
The broadcast on Channel 7, scheduled for 8 to 9 p.m., will have a small studio audience chosen by the governor’s office, but the news staff is soliciting questions by email at tv7news@wvii.com, according to Mike Palmer, vice president and general manager for Channel 7, the ABC affiliate, and Channel 22, the Fox affiliate in Bangor. The event also will be streamed live at foxbangor.com.
“I’ve been trying for many years to do some sort of exclusive news program with the governor because that is what news organizations do — they try to get exclusives with the newsmakers,” Palmer said Friday. “They approached me, and we put something together.”
The show will pre-empt reruns of “Fresh Off the Boat” and “The Muppets” on Channel 7.
Although the town hall will have commercial breaks, there will be fewer breaks than during an hour of entertainment programming and will not turn a profit for the station, according to Palmer.
“This is not a moneymaking venture,” he said. “We have to pre-empt the network, and we have to pay the staff to work it.”
Brent Littlefield, a senior political adviser to LePage, has worked with the station to coordinate the electronic-style town hall, which most likely is a first in Maine. He said Friday that because Channel 7 had indicated previously an interest in a live broadcast with LePage, the station was approached about Tuesday’s event.
Peter Steele, LePage’s communications director, said Friday in an email that the broadcast would not replace the governor’s State of the State address to the Legislature. Earlier this month, LePage threatened to submit a report in writing but not to address a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives in person.
“It won’t be that different than the other town meetings the governor has held, and people can participate much more easily than attending one because they literally can participate in their homes by watching the broadcast or the live stream on the Web,” Littlefield said.
The setup for the live broadcast will be the same as other town halls have been, he said.
“The governor will introduce himself and give a broad overview of his policies,” Littlefield said. “He will talk for 10, 12, or 15 minutes, then, open it up for questions. The format will be very, very similar.”
People who attend town hall forums are asked to submit written questions that are sorted and asked by the governor’s staff. The questions emailed to the station will be sorted and asked by Craig Colson, news director and anchorman for Channel 7’s newscasts.
“It’s a TV event and it’s the governor’s event. It’s not really our event, but we are asking the questions,” Palmer said.
Members of the studio audience, which will be limited to fewer than 50 people because of the size of the room at the Richard E. Dyke Center for Family Business, will be by invitation, according to Littlefield. He said Democrats, Republicans and independents would be invited, possibly with Husson students among them.
“The entire event is live, but there will be no pre-planning of questions,” he said. “It’s not a produced TV show. The focus in not on the people in the room. It’s not a rally.”
Other media outlets will not be allowed to cover the broadcast in person as they have LePage’s other town halls. Littlefield said the event is designed so the governor can talk directly to viewers and answer their questions. LePage has been critical of how reporters in Augusta have covered his administration.
Littlefield there is a potential that LePage could, through the broadcast, talk to “tens of thousands of Mainers” about his priorities of further reducing the income tax, reforming welfare by strengthening the state’s safety net for the most vulnerable, cutting energy costs and addressing Maine’s high student-debt burden.
Since September, the governor has held town halls in Farmington, Bar Harbor, Lewiston, Auburn, Rockland, Portland, Waterville, Bridgton and Windham, a news release issued Tuesday said.