John Locke Foundation staff will be busy this afternoon with a candidate policy briefing and roundtable issue discussion leading into the 2012 election season. Vice President for Outreach Becki Gray will offer an overview, Executive Vice President Kory Swanson will discuss the role of a think tank, and Carolina Journal Managing Editor Rick Henderson will highlight CJ in its print, online, and multimedia formats. Research staffers will cover the following topics: Vice President for Research and Resident Scholar Roy Cordato, renewable energy mandates; Director of Regulatory Studies Jon Sanders, hydraulic fracturing; Director of Fiscal Policy Studies Fergus Hodgson, budget and tax policy; Director of Education Studies Terry Stoops, K-12 education policy; and Director of Research and Local Government Studies Michael Sanera, local government and transit. JLF President John Hood will lead an open discussion with candidates after the presentations. These aren’t the only public appearances for JLF staffers this week. Sanera critiqued the Wake County transit plan during presentations for town boards in Fuquay-Varina and Zebulon. He’ll deliver a speech Saturday to the Libertarian Party state convention, then team with N.C. History Project Director Troy Kickler for a Citizens’ Constitutional Workshop for the Alamance Conservatives in Burlington. Mountain Xpress noted Swanson’s role as moderator for a recent 11th Congressional District candidates’ forum. (One by one, Kenny West, Ethan Wingfield, Vance Patterson, Mark Meadows, and Jeff Hunt went in to face Asheville Tribune Editor David Morgan and Kory Swanson of the John Locke Foundation, who grilled 11th Congressional District candidate Mark Meadows.) The Fayetteville Observer promoted Gray’s speech to the Cumberland County Republican Men’s Club. The Charlotte Observer‘s website noted Hood’s upcoming April 5 speech in Mooresville.