Days before a lunchtime forum to showcase all six South Florida congressional candidates, the event has lost original moderator Michael Putney because he objected to letting the candidates see the questions beforehand.

On Friday, all the candidates denied setting such a condition for their participation Wednesday in the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce's ''Congressional Forum 2008'' -- a hot ticket expected to attract some 500 movers and shakers.

Among those confirmed to take part in the $55-to-$75-a-plate forum at Jungle Island: Republican U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Democratic challengers Raul Martinez, Joe Garcia and Annette Taddeo.

WPLG-ABC 10 political reporter Putney had agreed to be the moderator, but he dropped out -- calling the forum ''a farce'' -- when he learned the candidates would be allowed to review the questions before the luncheon. ''I had not understood that the candidates would get to see the questions beforehand. That reduces the moderator to some kind of puppet and if that's what they wanted, they can hire an actor,'' Putney said.

`THAT'S LAUGHABLE'

Putney said he had viewed the event as an opportunity to question candidates seeking public office. ''But the whole idea that this is a debate -- that's laughable, a farce I choose not to be part of,'' he said.

Lorraine Reigosa, spokeswoman for the chamber, said the event is a forum and showing the questions to the candidates ahead of time is ''standard forum procedure.'' In fact, all sides in next week's event -- Putney included -- had been notified of the conditions back in August. Putney said he did not realize that provision was included in the paperwork he received.

Reigosa said the questions are selected ahead of time because the chamber wants them to be relevant to the audience. She added that the moderator is allowed to ask the questions in any order and pose follow-up questions of his own.

In a press release prompted by Putney's withdrawal, the chamber explained:

``The forum format is the Chamber standard for political discussions, not debates, to discuss questions as posed by the business community to those running for office. The Chamber has not received requests to change the format of its forum from any of the campaigns.''

PRESIDENT'S E-MAIL

But Putney said that's not what he was told by Chamber President Barry Johnson. In a Sept. 26 e-mail to Putney, Johnson said the chamber had ''hoops we had to jump through'' to get all the candidates to attend the event.

''Normally and most always I agree with you,'' Johnson wrote, in the e-mail provided to The Miami Herald by Putney.

'Unfortunately, one of the hoops we had to jump through to get all of our `guests' with us is to allow them to have a copy of the questions in advance. And we are polling our membership to retrieve those, which will be provide[d] to you and them in advance of the debate. They will not know which of the list of questions will be included in the program.''

Johnson said Friday in an e-mail to The Miami Herald that his message to Putney ``was explaining our policy. It is not specific to this forum. None of the candidates in this year's forum requested them [the questions]. And they would not have a reason to make the request as we sent a letter to each that explains the format of the forum and among other things explains that each will receive questions in advance.''

The forum is still on for noon Wednesday. With Putney out, WTVJ-NBC 6's senior political reporter Nick Bogert has stepped in to replace him. He calls the format ``imperfect.''

''Wednesday will give several hundred voters a chance to hear from candidates who want to represent them in Congress,'' Bogert said.

ANCHOR TO MODERATE

WFOR-CBS4 also announced this week it will broadcast a pair of congressional candidate debates on Oct. 15 -- the same night as the final presidential debate. CBS4 News Anchor Antonio Mora will moderate.

The debates will be taped in advance. Mario Diaz-Balart and Democratic challenger Garcia will tape their debate at 8:30 p.m. Friday. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Democratic challenger Martinez will be taped on at 2 p.m. Oct. 13.

Both half-hour debates will be broadcast without commercial interruption.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@