Phone Interview by Dave Sagarin With Erika Viccellio - June 25, 2004

What kind of contact did you have with the American Candidate show before they came to Charlottesville?

Actually, my first contact was with Matt Smyth at the Center for Politics -- I had read that the American Candidates might visit Charlottesville and I called to ask if there were any events planned around health care, or if that would be possible -- I wanted to put together anything I could, a panel or a forum or whatever.

Health care is a big issue in any campaign--there is a crisis of the uninsured in this country and no one is coming up with a viable solution -- and so I thought we could create an interesting dialogue and raise awareness of this issue through American Candidate.

So I started planning to run an event.

I spoke with Jen Perry when they got to town -- they had changed the format, instead of a series of planned events, they were going to allow the candidates to decide how to spend their day. But she thought that the candidates would find a health-care forum interesting and useful for their campaigns.

So we went forward with the event -- by this time I had a really awesome panel, from around the state.

And I spoke with all the candidates after the forum on Sunday -- it just worked out that I was able to speak with all of them, and some of their campaign managers -- I got a very positive response, and it sounded like all seven of them were coming to the health forum.

But Joyce Riley was the only one who came.

I do understand, all the others just decided that the best use of their time was going out door-to-door, camping out to get voters. Joyce Riley's approach to the campaigning was different. And she has a background as an RN, so she was very familiar with the field of health care and the issues.

What did you think of the Candidate's positions?

I will say that I am not necessarily in agreement with her positions -- they just did not resonate. But she did ask, afterwards, about other issues that are important in our community -- we spoke about affordable housing, things like that.

As a result of Joyce Riley attending your event, did you or anyone connected with the Free Clinic help with her campaign?

Well, they [American Candidate, prior to the event] did ask if we could help with individuals campaigns. And I told them that I was a little bothered by that, that we could not endorse any individual candidate -- in a real election or in this one -- as a non-profit organization. So I'm counting on them -- that the taping with Joyce is handled in a fair way, and that it doesn't look like we're endorsing her, when the show airs.

What did you think of American Candidate in general? Education, Entertainment? Might it attract people to the polls this November who would not otherwise have voted?

Oh, it's clearly entertainment. I hope that it has a strong secondary goal of getting more people involved in the electoral process.

In a way I'm sorry this is on Showtime, because not everyone gets that channel. I just hope that through this entertainment, they will sell the true electoral process.

- Erika Viccellio, Executive Director, Charlottesville Free Clinic