On March 26, community members gathered at a candidate forum for school board, county commission and mayoral candidates. Approximately 20 candidates were in attendance. “Even though (forums are) often a little rushed and you only get a glimpse of the candidates, for some voters that’s all they’re going to get,” campaign manager for District Five commission candidate Tim Denson, Briana Bivens, said. “They may not have the time to do much more research, so even getting that glimpse and seeing what the candidates’ priorities are is super important.” Photo by Elena Gilbertson Hall.
From six to nine p.m. on March 26, community members were able to ask questions of candidates running for the local school board, county commission and mayoral seat at one in a series of several local candidate forums.
On March 26, candidates for school board, county commission, and mayor, were hosted in the University of Georgia’s Zell B. Miller Learning Center for an Athens-Clarke County candidate forum.
The forum, hosted by the UGA’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Athens Economic Justice Coalition, was attended by a variety of both community members and UGA students.
“We really wanted to engage students with the community because there’s a UGA bubble for sure,” UGA junior and political action chair for the UGA NAACP Magali Lapu said. “We wanted to get both students and community members together for this event in order to ask questions and learn about what’s happening in the community.”
Candidates for local government and school board offered their stances on key issues and plans for the improvement of ACC.
“Forums offer the chance to meet and connect with the people who are responsible for so many things that matter in our lives,” UGA’s Grady College graduate student Emily Dardaman said. “I met several candidates whose commitment to Athens was inspiring, and I’m so happy to see their level of passion for this town.”
The forum allowed for opening and closing statements from each candidate as well as audience questions. Dardaman, one of the audience members, directed her question towards mayoral candidate Richie Knight about recent allegations of his failure to pay employees.
“Fear of conflict can often prevent us from holding those in power accountable and when you ask a politician a difficult and tough question, they will rarely give a meaningful response,” Dardaman said. “But as one candidate said to me afterwards, ‘asking hard questions is community service.’”
Some, including ACC District Five Commissioner Jared Bailey, felt the overall format of the forum was not conducive to receiving a comprehensive understanding of a candidate.
“We have too many candidates — school board, commission, and mayor — to go into much depth. I would suggest that they break it up (into multiple, separate forums),” Bailey said. “I understand they want to get everybody together for one event, but it’s kind of long to hold people’s attention so I would suggest they break it up.”
However, for UGA freshman Devon Spiva, attending events such as the candidate forum is an important way to get involved in the Athens community.
“I wanted to get more of a feel for the issues in the community. I’m not from here, I’m from Savannah, so I wanted to learn more about the candidates that are running,” Spiva said. “I am registered to vote in Athens and I think it’s important for UGA students to get involved in the Athens community.”
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