Minnesota Town Hall 1996 is now open on the World Wide Web.

Minnesota Town Hall is an online place for citizens to learn about and discuss candidates and issues affecting this year's Minnesota election. Its premiere interactive opportunity comes October 22 - 29, when candidates for U.S. Senate, including Senator Paul Wellstone and Rudy Boschwitz, engage in an electronic debate (e-debate).

Minnesota Town Hall was created by a group of public and private organizations including Minnesota E-Democracy, Star Tribune/Cowles Media Foundation, Cafe Utne, Channel 400 (WCCO Online), the League of Women Voters of MN, Minnesota Public Radio, Minnesota Regional Network, The Pioneer Planet, The River Project, The Star Tribune Online, and the Twin Cities Free-Net.

Minnesota Town Hall 1996 is built on the premise that civic institutions must exist to provide citizens the liberty to express their views and concerns in the political community to which they belong.

This fall's marquee event will be the E-Debate between the candidates running for the United States Senate. This will take place from October 22nd to October 29th and will be linked to a number of debates and events produced by our collaborators and taking place in other mediums such as radio and television.

So far Senator Paul Wellstone (DFL), former Senator Rudy Boschwitz (R), Dean Barkley (Reform Party), Tim Davis (Grassroots Party), and Ray Carlson (Libertarian Party) have agreed to participate. This race may point toward the direction Congress will take in coming years. That the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has targeted the contest as a top priority indicates the significance of the race. The e-debate is certain to be a political event that will elicit considerable energy and substantive discourse.

We hope to use the global scope of the Internet to focus the attention of not only the citizenry of Minnesota but also of interested parties across the nation and world on this uniquely interesting and significant race.

In this way we hope not only to highlight the political contest and issues involved but also the power of the Internet as a tool to enhance the democratic process locally and across the world by allowing more people to participate.