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If the absence of Republican candidate Paul LePage from last night’s gubernatorial showdown at Bates disappointed some spectators, you wouldn’t have known it from the debate watch party that took place just downstairs from the debate held in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall.

Though attentive and informed, the 50 or so students — for the most part Quimby Debate Council members and students in a campaign rhetoric course — still brought a certain wisenheimer energy to the gathering as they and their professors watched the Maine Public Broadcasting Network debate on the big screen.

Of course there were cheers whenever Bates was mentioned, and a particular candidate’s folksy appeals to the viewers at home reliably drew a response. But the laughter and exuberant mock applause practically broke through the ceiling when candidate Kevin Scott, alone among the four, expressed support for a conditional legalization of marijuana.

“I laughed too,” said Associate Professor of Rhetoric Stephanie Kelley-Romano. “It was so unexpected and unorthodox for a candidate.”

• Complete video of the Oct. 28 Maine Public Broadcasting Network gubernatorial debate at Bates.

• Video of Associate Professor of Politics John Baughman’s Muskie-flavored welcome to the audience.

Featuring four of the five candidates for the Blaine House — Democrat Elizabeth Mitchell and independents Eliot Cutler, Shawn Moody and Scott — the debate held in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall capped a day at Bates largely centered around the event. A crew from MPBN was on hand bright and early to start setting up in the concert hall, and Bates folks from Physical Plant and Dining Services had plenty to do setting up green rooms for the debaters and prepping the Museum of Art for a welcoming reception.

Public events began with a late-afternoon presentation, by seven students, designed to give spectators context for the main event that evening. Four members of the Brooks Quimby Debate Council summarized the candidates’ positions on the economy, social issues and the environment. And three students from Kelley-Romano’s “Presidential Campaign Rhetoric” course offered tips on debate strategy and likely outcomes.

The seven had done their homework. Quimbyites Nate Sweet ’11, Sam Schleipman ’12, Spencer Collett ’13 and Daniel Lambright ’12 effectively differentiated the candidates (including LePage, who bailed out of the debate the day before), providing basic themes for each contender that were helpful in relating them to larger currents of political thought.

From Kelley-Romano’s course, Kevin McCandlish ’13, Daniel Waters ’12 and Jordan Conwell ’12 laid out debate strategy and tactics. If candidate debates offer great insights into policy, Waters noted, the real takeaway is so-called relational strategies — the language, posture and gestures candidates use when they address each other.

A debate has less to do with scoring policy points, he said, and “everything to do with how candidates are judged [as people] by the voting public.”

Partners from way back

The evening’s events picked up momentum around 6 p.m. as guests, ultimately 100 or so, converged at the Museum of Art for a reception co-hosted by Bates and MPBN. Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and MPBN President Jim Dowe welcomed the visitors, both taking care to remind us that, in fact, the relationship between the two organizations goes back a ways: Bates and sister colleges Bowdoin and Colby founded WCBB, one component of what’s now MPBN, back in 1961.

“MPBN wouldn’t exist without Bates,” Dowe said, recalling that then-Bates President Charles Phillips was among a Bates group that went to Washington on the first day that licenses for public television were issued, in the early 1960s. “They waited on the steps for the doors to open” at the FCC, Dowe said.

“It’s very fitting for us to host debates at Bates,” Hansen said, referring not only to the college’s long and proud debate history, but also to the fact that the city of Lewiston welcomed Bates debates in City Hall before the college had a suitable venue of its own. Now, she said, “we’re thrilled to be able to reciprocate.”

As the hennaed Moroccan women of Lalla Essaydi’s photographs looked on, guests at the reception sipped champagne and munched chilled shrimp, chocolate-dipped strawberries and mustard-rubbed lamb.

In attendance were members of local government such as Auburn Mayor Dick Gleason P’93; well-known Bates faces such as dance program founder Marcy Plavin and Professor Emeritus of Psychology and state Rep. Richard Wagner; and two of the candidates, Shawn Moody — with son James ’12 — and Kevin Scott. A second Bates student had a candidate connection too — David Cutler ’12, nephew of Eliot.

No empty podium

As showtime drew near, MPBN crew members, all in black shirts, put the final touches on the stage and camera setup. Would there be a symbolic empty podium for the absent Lepage, we asked? No, one staffer joked, “but we did get them from Marden’s.” (LePage is general manager of the discount store chain.)

By showtime, about 280 of the Olin concert hall’s 300 seats were filled. About half the audience was invited, with the rest of the seats going to members of the Bates community, including some 70 students.

Associate Professor of Politics John Baughman greeted the gathering. Picking up the thread from Hansen of Bates’ debate history, he raised the spirit of a great Maine and U.S. politician who, before all that, was a debater at Bates: Edmund S. Muskie ’36.

Baughman pointed out that when Muskie ran for governor in the mid-1950s, the candidates never debated one another. So even in a political season as rancorous as this one, it’s clear that there has been at least some kind of progress.

Indeed, as silly as the students got during the watch party in the basement, there was no question that each had a critical eye — in the best sense — on the discourse emanating from the auditorium upstairs.

In an age when so many potential voters shun the polls, director of debate Jan Hovden said before the event, “anything that engages people in the political process is a good thing in and of itself.”

The debate will be webcast and broadcast live by MPBN on radio and television 8-9 p.m. from the Olin Concert Hall at Bates, 75 Russell St., Lewiston. Because seating is limited, admission will be by ticket only, reserved in advance — but tickets are free and a limited number of them are still available on a first-come, first-served basis, via e-mail at yourvote2010[at]bates[dot]edu. There is a limit of one ticket per e-mail address. While all tickets must be reserved prior to the debate, any tickets not claimed by 7:30 p.m. at the reservation table in Olin will be offered to the general public.

A RELATED EVENT:
Beside the gubernatorial debate, Bates’ Brooks Quimby Debate Council and students in the Presidential Campaign Rhetoric class will offer a two-part program from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. in the Mays Center, near Central Ave. and Russell St. The debaters will outline the candidates’ stances on key issues and talk about areas of divergence and overlap. The Rhetoric students will then discuss strategies of political debates. Both these associated events are open to all at no charge.

DEBATE BACKGROUND:
While no questions will be taken from the audience during the live debate, MPBN welcomes questions received prior to the debate for consideration by its moderator and two questioners. Those questions should be submitted by e-mail to talk(at)mpbn(dot)net before noon Oct. 28.

All five candidates on the state ballot committed to participating in the Oct. 28 debate at Bates: independent candidate Eliot Cutler, Republican nominee and Waterville Mayor Paul LePage, Democratic nominee and Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell and independent candidates Shawn Moody and Kevin Scott.

However, late Wednesday afternoon Oct. 27 LePage notified MPBN he will not be participating in the Bates debate.

This and prior debates will all be available on demand at www.mpbn.net as part of MPBN’s “Your Vote 2010″ election coverage, and will be rebroadcast over the weekend.

MPBN gubernatorial debate broadcast times:
10/28 Thursday 8 p.m. LIVE – Also live radio simulcast, and webcast at www.mpbn.net
10/29 Friday 1 p.m. – Radio
10/29 Friday 8:30 p.m. – TV
10/31 Sunday 11 a.m. -TV
10/31 Sunday 4:30 p.m. – TV
11/1 Monday 3 p.m. – Radio
The debate will also be available on demand at www.mpbn.net following the live event.

The debate will be webcast and broadcast live by MPBN on radio and television 8-9 p.m. from the Olin Concert Hall at Bates, 75 Russell St., Lewiston. Because seating is limited, most seating will be by advance invitation by MPBN and Bates College. A limited number of non-invitation free tickets will become available on a first-come, first-served basis at 10 a.m. Oct. 25, available  at  yourvote2010@bates.edu <yourvote2010[at]bates[dot]edu>.

While no questions will be taken from the audience during the live debate, MPBN welcomes questions received prior to the debate for consideration by its moderator and two questioners. Those questions should be submitted to talk@mpbn.net <talk[at]mpbn[dot]net> before noon Oct. 28.

All five candidates on the state ballot have committed to participating in the Oct. 28 debate at Bates: independent candidate Eliot Cutler, Republican nominee and Waterville Mayor Paul LePage, Democratic nominee and Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell and independent candidates Shawn Moody and Kevin Scott.

This and prior debates will all be available on demand at www.mpbn.net as part of MPBN’s  ”Your Vote 2010″ election coverage, and will be rebroadcast over the weekend.

MPBN gubernatorial debate broadcast times:

10/28 Thursday 8 p.m. LIVE – Also live radio simulcast, and webcast at www.mpbn.net

10/29 Friday 1 p.m. – Radio

10/29 Friday 8:30 p.m. – TV

10/31 Sunday 11 a.m. -TV

10/31 Sunday 4:30 p.m. – TV

11/1 Monday 3 p.m. – Radio

The debate will also be available on demand at www.mpbn.net following the live event.

In March, two Bates musical ensembles joined two community ensembles in a first-of-its-kind performance of Johannes Brahms’ masterful A German Requiem.

At 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 11, the stations of MPBN Radio will broadcast the concert on the MaineStage  program.

The landmark musical event on March 31 featured some 260 musicians performing at Lewiston’s Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. The concert was the first collaboration between the Maine Music Society and the college, both notable presences in Maine music. The link is John Corrie, of Lewiston, who has directed the Bates College Choir since 1986 and became artistic director of the music society last year.

In addition to the college choir, performing were the Bates College Orchestra, the music society’s Androscoggin Chorale and Maine Chamber Ensemble, soprano Bonnie Scarpelli and baritone Peter Allen ’66. Hiroya Miura, of the Bates faculty, conducted the Requiem, and Corrie led the combined choirs, along with choral groups from local high schools, in two Brahms motets.

The Bates College Museum of Art is the subject of a half-hour profile in the television series The Maine Art Museum Trail, an original production of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. The program will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20, on the stations of MPBN.

The program explores the museum’s role as a resource and nexus for explorations of art and visual culture — a “laboratory” for the visual arts that serves the college and the community.

Featured prominently is the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection, composed of art and documentary materials by or about this pioneering American modernist, a Lewiston native. The collection, donated 50 years ago, gave the museum its start. Museum director Mark Bessire discusses Hartley’s influence, which is evidenced in part by how many of his contemporaries were attracted to Maine because of him — artists such as Carl Sprinchorn, who is also featured in the program, and Vinalhaven pop artist Robert Indiana, who has devoted years to creating the painting series “The Hartley Elegies” (which will be the subject of a museum exhibition opening Oct. 1).

Also examined is performance art at Bates College, which is the academic home of William Pope.L, one of the country’s preeminent performance artists. A segment depicts his students engaging their unwitting peers in a dialogue on race and the effects of globalization as part of a piece called The Black Factory, which has toured the East this summer.

Founded in the 1990s as a way to heighten awareness of Maine’s rich history in the visual arts and design, the Maine Art Museum Trail links the state’s seven best-known art institutions. In addition to the Bates museum, they are: the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland; the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick; the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville; the Ogunquit Museum of American Art; the Portland Museum of Art; and the University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor.

The Bates installment is the sixth in the MPBN series, which debuted in 2003. The purpose of the series, according to executive producer Barbara Noyes Pulling, is to “provide a video showcase of the wide variety of artistic talent, high-quality art collections and top-notch museum facilities in Maine, [which exist] in outsize proportion to the state’s small population.”

The Bates episode re-airs at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21, and at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27. The seventh and last show in the series, profiling the Colby museum, will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 27. It will be followed by back-to-back rebroadcasts of the six earlier programs.

The Bates College Museum of Art is the subject of a half-hour profile in the television series The Maine Art Museum Trail, an original production of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. The program will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20, on the stations of MPBN. The program explores the museum’s role as a resource and nexus for explorations of art and visual culture — a “laboratory” for the visual arts that serves the college and the community. Featured prominently is the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection, composed of art and documentary materials by or about this pioneering American modernist, a Lewiston native. The collection, donated 50 years ago, gave the museum its start. Museum director Mark Bessire discusses Hartley’s influence, which is evidenced in part by how many of his contemporaries were attracted to Maine because of him — artists such as Carl Sprinchorn, who is also featured in the program, and Vinalhaven pop artist Robert Indiana, who has devoted years to creating the painting series “The Hartley Elegies” (which will be the subject of a museum exhibition opening Oct. 1). Also examined is performance art at Bates College, which is the academic home of William Pope.L, one of the country’s preeminent performance artists. A segment depicts his students engaging their unwitting peers in a dialogue on race and the effects of globalization as part of a piece called The Black Factory, which has toured the East this summer. Founded in the 1990s as a way to heighten awareness of Maine’s rich history in the visual arts and design, the Maine Art Museum Trail links the state’s seven best-known art institutions. In addition to the Bates museum, they are: the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland; the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick; the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville; the Ogunquit Museum of American Art; the Portland Museum of Art; and the University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor. The Bates installment is the sixth in the MPBN series, which debuted in 2003. The purpose of the series, according to executive producer Barbara Noyes Pulling, is to “provide a video showcase of the wide variety of artistic talent, high-quality art collections and top-notch museum facilities in Maine, [which exist] in outsize proportion to the state’s small population.” The Bates episode re-airs at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21, and at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27. The seventh and last show in the series, profiling the Colby museum, will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 27. It will be followed by back-to-back rebroadcasts of the six earlier programs. – Office of Communications and Media Relations