Causey Kiboshes Insurance Commissioner Forum To Be Hosted by the League of Women Voters

Lack of Causey Response Prompts Cancellation in Wilmington

On July 5th the League of Women Voters of North Carolina and the NC Center for Voter Education invited both Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin and challenger Mike Causey to be the headliner at an August 21st Wilmington public forum. The planned forum would allow opening statements from the two candidates for Insurance Commissioner and then both gentlemen would receive questions from a moderator and members of the assembled public for approximately one hour.

Goodwin immediately accepted.

On August 9th, the co-hosts informed Goodwin that the event was canceled. Upon inquiring the reason, an organizer stated that the lack of a response from Mike Causey caused the cancellation. This resulted even though Causey received the invitation more than a month before the event.

Though political candidate schedules can fill up quickly and events may conflict, it is especially interesting that Mr. Causey has accepted an August 22nd invitation -- yes, that's the day after the League of Women Voters event -- for the Wilmington Region Association of Realtors. The gaping difference between the two events is that Causey accepted this subsequent event where he gets only three minutes to speak and no questions. He ignored the League forum that was open to the public and where there'd be approximately an hour of head-to-head deliberations with his opponent plus questions from the public.

Not knowing why Mr. Causey didn't agree to the August 21st event, to the observer it appears that Mr. Causey just did not want to debate his opponent.

"I'm very disappointed that Mike has given no reason for ducking the debate and has caused its cancellation," said Insurance Commissioner Goodwin. "There are fundamental differences between him and me that the public needs to know. Not the least of them is that Mr. Causey worked for decades for the insurance industry special interests and I have a proven bipartisan record of saving consumers and businesses over $1.3 Billion and fighting insurance fraud."

Goodwin confirmed and accepted participation in both events.

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