There is always the danger that those who think alike should gravitate together into ‘coteries’ where they will henceforth encounter opposition only in the emasculated form of rumor that the outsiders say thus and thus. The absent are easily refuted, complacent dogmatism thrives, and differences of opinion are embittered by group hostility. Each group hears not the best, but the worst, that the other groups can say.
~C.S. Lewis
Several readers have asked if we are hosting a candidate forum/debate for the contested races at the county level as we have done in previous election cycles. Well, we were planning on it.
After waiting for the recall election results to come in, we sent out a “Doodle” poll via email last Friday to the candidates for sheriff and commissioner (four candidates in all) to figure out a time and date where everyone could gather for a nonpartisan public forum — a job interview, in essence.
I received responses from three of the four candidates before the weekend was over. I was waiting on the last one when RBC Republican Party President Sam Tolley called on Monday morning to let me know that the county GOP has decided to host its own forums/debates for the primary candidates, rendering our plans for a non-partisan forum unnecessary.
One of the four candidates then deleted his poll responses for availability, and the fourth suggested we “just cover the Republican forum” instead.
We will report on the Republican forum, pending availability of one of our three staff members. It is history in the making, as no one we’ve asked seems to recall any time in the past when a political party hosted its own candidate forums for its own candidates. Exactly why the county GOP has chosen to do so at this time, for this particular election, is open to speculation.
While it seems a little unusual to have a political party host its own candidate debates, the most important thing is that all RBC voters — not just Republicans, because these officials won’t just represent Republicans — have access to the information they need about the candidates to make informed decisions when they vote.
If you have questions you’d like the candidates to answer, please submit those to us by phone, email, or in person as soon as you can, as we would love to have the candidates to join us for live interviews in our podcast studio, and to submit written responses to questions for print
By NIKI TURNER – editor@editorht1885.com
