<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/4073201296/" title="KRMG Mayoral Smashup by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2690/4073201296_6ab73dfdfc_o.jpg" alt="KRMG Mayoral Smashup" height="800" width="534" /></a><br /></div><br />When I think of the word "debate," I tend to think of it in the context of my own life. Take, for example, the time I wanted to re-paint every square inch of the entire inside of the house into which I moved when I married my husband, who had bought the house several years prior. I decided I wanted to do this about a month after the wedding.<br /><br />Okay, that makes me sound like a you-kn0w-what. But, look, the walls were white, and high-gloss at that. The ceilings were white. The molding was white. The flooring in the kitchen and entry ways was white. Even the carpet was, you guessed it, white.<br /><br />This conversation was inevitable.<br /><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me</span>: Honey, about the walls. They're just so, you know, <span style="font-style: italic;">white</span>. And colorless. And glaring. I feel like we live in a mental institution. </div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Aaron</span>: Meh. I think they're fine. </div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me</span>: Um, honey. No, really. Let's paint.</div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Aaron</span>: No way. I know where this is going. You're going to kill the resale value of this house with your zany color choices. Ecru? Suede? Buttercup? Sweetheart. No one would want to buy a house with walls these colors unless they were artists or something. (visible shuddering at the word "artists") </div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me</span>: Darling, those are the most neutral colors on the face of the planet. </div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Aaron</span>: Plus, it'll cost a million dollars.</div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me</span>: No, it won't. I'm painting.</div><div><br /></div><div>In case you didn't notice, my husband is the conservative one in this relationship. He wouldn't spend a penny if it didn't mean going hungry and homeless, he sometimes quotes Sean Hannity (now I'm the one shuddering) at the dinner table and the first word out of his mouth at the suggestion of my liberal, hair-brained ideas is "heck." The second word? "No."<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>He couldn't stay home all day, every day, so the walls up and magically painted themselves. This was my story through many a debate about what exactly had happened to the walls to turn them not ecru and buttercup but instead blood red and seafoam green until one day nearly five years later, just before our anniversary, he said coolly, "You know, honey, you did a really good job with picking paint colors in here. Looks good." </div><div><br /></div><div>See what a good debate can produce? Healthful disagreement. Creative problem solving. Mischievous wall-painting elves. Agreement to move forward. At least, if nothing else, there will be a smashup worthy face-off - maybe not a five-year-long one, but still, something to get the blood pumping. </div><div><br /></div><div>Exchange riveting domestic debates such as these for something more substantive, at least for tonight. Head to <a href="http://www.jeweltulsa.com/">Jewel on Brookside</a> to meet <a href="http://www.urbantulsa.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A28335">the top three Mayoral candidates</a> and then to watch the candidates duke it out in a not-your-typical-debate debate known as the <a href="http://leadershiptulsa.org/index.cfm?pageID=3&amp;AID=401">KRMG Mayoral Smashup</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>What I mean by that is, don't show up expecting a made-for-TV event. It'll be more fun, interactive and spontaneous than the timed, question-answer-response format to which you were woefully subjected in freshman debate class.<br /><br />It'll also be more fun than newlywed arguments about paint colors.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Hosts of the event are <a href="http://krmg.com/features/staff_potter.html">KRMG News Director Dan Potter</a> and <a href="http://krmg.com/inside/staff_joe_kelley.html">KRMG Morning News Host Joe Kelley</a>. KRMG will broadcast the debate live on AM 740 and FM 102.3, News Talk KRMG, free of commercial interruption. </div><div><br /></div><div>Don't show up without your mobile device. You'll be encouraged to submit questions for the candidates online, as well as by text and Twitter, and you won't want to be the only one without tired thumbs at the end of the night. </div><div><br /></div><div>The pre-event mixer, stocked with food samples and a cash bar, starts at 5pm. The program will begin at 6:45, with the debate heating up at 7pm. </div><div><br /></div><div>We hear time and time again how important it is to vote. That's all fine and good, but here's the deal: Incumbent on each voter is to know his or her stuff when it comes to the candidates for an office as important as mayor. Attending a debate like the KRMG Mayoral Smashup is a fun way to get informed. It will also be easy to learn where to find further information before the time comes to make a decision on election day, Nov. 10. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks to <a href="http://krmg.com/">KRMG</a>, <a href="http://typros.org/">TYPros</a>, <a href="http://urbantulsa.com/">Urban Tulsa Weekly</a> and <a href="http://leadershiptulsa.org/">Leadership Tulsa</a> for hosting this event.<br /><br />Photos from <a href="http://markfortulsa.com">MarkforTulsa.com</a>, <a href="http://tomadelson.com">TomAdelson.com</a> and <a href="http://deweybartlett.com">DeweyBartlett.com</a>.<br /></div>