Station Preparing to Host Political Forum on Tuesday
With the midterm election just around the corner, the voters of White County will once again be able to turn to WROY/WRUL to learn more about the candidates of contested races. General Manager Jc Tinsley will moderate the forum. He says it’s important for voters to get an opportunity to learn more about the candidates vying for leadership positions.
Ya know, it’s interesting. We keep seeing these low voter turnouts and I really just decided several years ago that I couldn’t drag people to the polls, but having this mouthpiece that is the radio stations, I can make sure that people have the opportunity to hear from candidates in their own voices.
The races the forum will focus on are mostly local including Sheriff featuring incumbent Doug Maier facing off with Jonathan Williams. Jakie Carter and John Gunter for County Board District 1, Steven Shelton vs. Clint Spence for County Board District 5, Sandy Choate, the Democrat challenger to incumbent Pam Armstrong for County Treasurer and one regional race. Darren Bailey unseated David Reis in the primary and will be facing off against upstart Democrat Cynthia Given for Representative of the 109th District for the General Assembly.
Tinsley explains what attendees of the forum can expect.
Well, we try to start right at 6:30, but we’ll open the doors early around 6, maybe a bit prior for folks to start filing in. We make sure that there’s a welcome table and an opportunity for folks that want to submit questions to do so by writing it down. I don’t allow folks to stand up during the forum and address the candidates. I just see the potential that that could go, just horribly wrong…and I try to avoid “horribly wrong” whenever possible. But we go over those proposed questions prior to weed out which ones are most applicable. And as far as the format, we flip a coin before hand to see which candidate goes first to start us off. Each candidate is then given 2:00 minutes for Opening remarks and they’ll go in reverse order for closing remarks. Tammy Knight, who has been my right hand for the last 15 years is my timekeeper. After opening remarks, we just go back and forth in a 1, 2, 2, 1, 1,2 so on and so forth format to keep it fair and we make them keep their responses to a minute.
The public is encouraged to attend. If you can’t be there however, Tinsley says he plans for folks to be able to get the information they seek.
I’m not broadcasting it live this year, but I am planning to record it and then to make it available later on air at WROY and probably in chunks on our website. I really want people to come out to the event, but I also understand lives are as busy and involved as ever and so I want to make sure the information is available after the fact when people are thinking about it and deciding how they want to vote.
The WROY/WRUL Public Forum is this coming Tuesday, October 16th and will be held at the White County Fairgrounds Floral Hall. The forum will start at 6:30.
