Senate candidate Kurt Schaefer said he is skeptical at the reasoning behind the cancellation and feels it has some relation to his opponent Chuck Graham.

Mother's Against Drunk Driving scheduled the forum for Oct. 20. Both the local and state MADD officials approved the forum, but national officials dropped it. MADD, Schaefer and Graham have different theories why the forum was cancelled. Schaefer suspects it was because all the candidates, except Graham would be represented. MADD's decision to cancel is related to Graham's DWI conviction last October.

"Candidates on both sides I know were going to attend this forum. Steve Hobbs was going to attend, Ed Robb was going to attend, Chris Kelly was going to attend, Mary Still said she couldn't attend but she was going to send her husband, who is a lawyer here in town and so I think everyone who is a legislative candidate in Boone County was going to attend. I think he is the only one. You would have to ask him why didn't want to attend this forum," Schaefer said.

Chuck Graham's campaign manager said he was unable to attend because of a scheduling conflict with the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation forum. Schaefer agreed to attend this forum.

Graham campaign manager said this is a publicity stunt and Schaefer is trying to divert attention from issues that will be discussed at the Animal Legislation forum.

The response states, "This forum gives our campaign an opportunity to shed light on Kurt Schaefer's record of defending corporate polluters, undermining local control of health and safety regulations, and his mishandling of the taum sauk reservoir agreement."

KOMU contacted the national MADD officials, explaining the arguments by Graham and Schaefer.

MADD sent KOMU a statement saying, "MADD apologizes for any confusion surrounding our participation in this forum. We had concerns that our involvement may have indicated bias for one side or the other and eventually decided to not participate. We contacted the appropriate parties to let them know."