Tonight, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn will take questions from voters on the Facebook page of WLS, the ABC-owned station in Chicago. Tomorrow night, challenger Bruce Rauner will take questions in the same way.
Facebook’s Andy Stone tells TVSpy WLS’ event marks a first for local stations:
“Facebook’s Q&A tool offers candidates and elected officials a quick, easy and engaging way to interact with constituents and voters in real time. Facebook’s exciting partnership with WLS-TV means that days before they go to the polls, for the first time ever, Illinoisans will have the opportunity to discuss the issues with both gubernatorial candidates on the ABC 7 Chicago Facebook page.”
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Viewer engagement with this kind of event can be surprising. Recently, ABC News reached more than 10 million people with a town hall on Ebola, which was hosted on the ABC News Facebook page.