T-Squared: One-Hour Interviews With White and Perry

Only a few weeks to go before Election Day, and the major-party candidates for governor can't agree on even a single side-by-side debate. What's an engaged voter to do, let alone one who wants to be engaged? The Tribune — in partnership with Austin's public broadcasting stations — is here to help.

Next Friday, Oct. 15, the Trib, radio station KUT and televison station KLRU will present separate one-hour interviews with Democrat Bill White and Republican Rick Perry. The interviews will take place at KLRU's Austin City Limits studio before a live audience. I'll be the sole interviewer; I'll ask 40 minutes of questions on a range of topics that I and my colleagues will determine and 20 minutes of questions submitted by prospective voters (more about that in a sec).

The Trib and KLRU will live-stream video of the interviews on our respective websites, texastribune.org and klru.org, as they happen on Friday; KUT will live-stream audio at kut.org. All three of us will subsequently post full video and/or full audio — the Trib, for instance, plans to post both video and audio at 5 a.m. Monday morning, Oct. 18, which is the first day of early voting — and we're happy to share those files with any media organization that wants them, and with any reporter, blogger, etc.

White will be interviewed from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.; Perry will be interviewed from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

As for the things you'd like me to ask: E-mail your submissions to questions@texastribune.org or send them in via the Trib's Facebook and Twitter pages, KUT's Facebook and Twitter pages, and KLRU's Facebook and Twitter pages. We'll cull the best ones, and I'll pose them to the candidates in the final third of their hour-long visits with us.

In the absence of a true compare-and-contrast, this may be the only opportunity to hear White and Perry talk at such great length about the biggest issues affecting Texas. Be sure to tune in.