Newtown Bee Planning Political Forum October 24

By John Voket

Residents and voters interested in hearing from candidates vying to serve in the local government’s top elected seats should plan to attend a political forum October 24 in the Edmond Town Hall theater. The evening forum, which will be sponsored and hosted by The Bee Publishing Company, is still in the planning stages, according to Curtiss Clark, editor of The Newtown Bee.

“We have booked the theater for the night and are looking forward to giving interested Newtown voters an opportunity to meet and hear viewpoints from each first selectman candidate,” Mr Clark said. Incumbent First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, Republican challenger and current councilman Joseph Borst, as well as petitioning first selectman candidates Christian Qualey and Louis “Jay” Mattegat have all been issued written invitations to the forum, and replies are expected shortly.

In addition, two vying Board of Selectman candidates, Democratic incumbent Joseph Bojnowski and Republican selectman nominee and current school board member Paul Mangiafico, have been invited to supply brief introductory statements.

Mr Clark said he is considering several avenues to help develop questions that will ultimately be posed to the candidates.

“We are looking at possibly soliciting general questions directly from the candidates, as well as from the voting public at large for consideration, as opposed to generating all the questions through the newspaper’s editorial board,” Mr Clark said.

While the October 24 candidates’ forum is expected to feature aspects of a debate, Mr Clark said he was hoping to design the line of questions, and the criteria for candidates to provide answers, in a way that would provide maximum exposure on their views and ideas to local voters.

“Despite the newspaper calling for the local parties to provide choices at all levels in local political races for years, this is the first year in a long time that voters have been offered such a depth of choices,” Mr Clark said. “With true competition on almost every line of the ballot, I think we will see more interested and invested voters heading to the polls November 6.”

Mr Clark said he expects voters this November will not only be looking to select the best candidates to lead the town government for the next two to four years, but those most qualified to administer a $100 million municipal budget with taxpayers’ best interests in mind.

Mr Clark was candid when explaining why the forum is reserved for just the first selectman and board of selectman candidates.

“This is the first time our newspaper has entertained an event of this nature, and we want to do it right,” he said. “We understand other organizations in town are planning meet-and-greet opportunities for the underticket candidates, so this year The Newtown Bee will be sticking to something a little more formal for those seeking the town’s top elected offices.”