Just a heads-up to Columbia voters: There will be a mayoral candidates’ forum tonight at 7 p.m. at Eastminster Presbyterian Church on Trenholm Road. Yours truly will be the moderator.
This is mainly for the residents of the neighborhoods whose associations are sponsoring the event — Historic Heathwood, Heathwood West, Tanglewood, Melrose, Lyon Street, Forest Hills and Pinehurst. But folks from other parts of the city are welcome. One caveat — the organizers say this is not a campaign rally, and they don’t want supporters or opponents of various candidates disrupting the proceedings. There will be a process for taking audience questions, but it will be orderly — folks in the audience can submit questions to mediators who will then choose questions to feed to me at the podium.
The session lasts 90 minutes, and there are seven candidates:
- Joseph Azar
- Steve Benjamin
- Sparkle Clark
- Kirkman Finlay
- Aaron Johnson
- Steve Morrison
- Gary Myers
… which is unwieldy, but what are you gonna do?
I hope to see you there. But if I do and don’t stop to say hey, please understand — I’ll be VERY busy. Trying to make sure seven contending candidates each get a fair opportunity to express their views in 90 minutes can be a bit like herding cats. Here’s hoping it goes more smoothly than that, and is informative to the voters.
