Newspaper Journalists to Participate in Debate Oct. 28

WACO, Texas - Four reporters from prestigious Texas newspapers will serve as panelists during a national platform party debate at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 28, in Jones Theater, located in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center at Baylor University.
Panelists will include Wayne Slater, Austin bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News; Michele Kay, reporter for the Austin American-Statesman; R.G. Ratcliffe, state political reporter for the Houston Chronicle; and John Young, editorial page director of the Waco Tribune-Herald.
All will ask questions to State Republican Party Chairman Tom Pauken and State Democratic Party Chairman Bill White. Neal T. "Buddy" Jones, who engages in private legislative consulting in Austin, will serve as moderator.
Slater directs a staff of seven Austin reporters for the Morning News and two part-time research assistants. He is a graduate of West Virginia University and attended graduate school at Ohio University. He has worked for the Associated Press in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas and West Virginia.
Ratcliffe has been covering state politics since 1983 and has covered each presidential election since 1984. He has covered such political figures as Clayton Williams, Phil Gramm and Michael Dukakis. Ratcliffe is a graduate of the University of Missouri.
Young, a graduate of Colorado State University, is a native of Denver and has been editorial page editor of the Tribune-Herald since 1984. His weekly column is distributed on the Cox and New York Times news services. He has won numerous awards for writing and in 1992 wrote "One Oar in the Brazos."
Kay has covered state politics for the American-Statesman for more than six years. She focuses on the Capitol beat and has also written stories for several other areas of the paper.
White became chairman of the Texas Democratic Party earlier this year. He previously served as deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Energy. Pauken was elected GOP chairman in 1994 and re-elected for a second term in 1996. He is an attorney in Dallas.
The debate is free and open to the public, but tickets are required for admission. For ticket information, call (817) 755-1421.