Word: fishkin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Antwan gets his second break. The defender's office assigns his file to chief public defender David Fishkin, a gentle giant who looks like a bearded Ichabod Crane. More than anything else, Fishkin decides, efforts must be made to keep Antwan "out of the system" by placing him in a "diversion" program, which offers counseling and individual attention rather than harsh penalties like incarceration. Like everyone else in the courthouse, Fishkin knows that once a kid falls deeper into the justice system, he may never get out. But the lawyer is worried that the prosecutor on the case may have...
...Fishkin proposes a bold antidote: flying a random sample of the entire electorate to a single place, where they would meet face-to-face with the presidential candidates and debate the issues. Then, and only then, would the group be polled on its preferences. Such a reform, if effected, would combine the democracy of the modern primary system with the firsthand knowledge of candidates that old-time party leaders brought to the nominating process...
Sound farfetched, the kind of Rube Goldberg scheme an armchair academic would concoct, oblivious to political realities? Not at all. The Public Broadcasting Service has quietly embraced Fishkin's idea and plans to televise six to eight hours of excerpts of the exercise during the weekend of Jan. 17-19, a month before the 1992 campaign formally begins with the Iowa caucuses. Named the National Issues Convention, the three-day, $3.5 million conclave in Austin holds the potential to shape the late-starting, who's-running-anyway Democratic race and provide a forum for the Bush Administration to field-test...
...pivotal moment will come in December, when about 600 randomly selected adult Americans will be told they have won the political lottery and are delegates to the National Issues Convention. Will they agree to put aside their normal lives for a weekend and fly all-expenses-paid to Austin? Fishkin is optimistic. "What you're offering these people is three days on national TV, a chance to meet the candidates, a chance to make history, a sunny climate and a reasonable per diem allowance," he says. "For a lot of these people, this will be the most important thing that...
...Democratic contenders, whoever they prove to be, the lure will be free TV time and the possibility of gaining credibility by winning the delegates' endorsement. Although Fishkin and the other convention organizers hope the President will make an appearance, they will be satisfied if several Cabinet members attend as Administration surrogates...