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 Today's Editorial
The forum can help you choose
Local candidates and their views will be on display at Thursday’s voter forum
There are a couple good ways to judge people. Shake their hand, look
them right in the eye and see how they answer questions. That goes
double for political candidates.
Without that personal contact, we are left to base our picks on
political advertisements, break room gossip, neighbors or by counting
yard signs.
Those are hardly the best ways to select who represents us on the county commission or in the Kansas Legislature.
Here’s a suggestion. Thursday night grab a bite to eat and head over to
the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce for a candidates’ forum. It goes
from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Like past forums, this one is conducted by the
chamber and the Salina League of Women Voters.
Several candidates have been invited to participate. They are:
• 69th District House incumbent Deena Horst, Republican, and her Democrat challenger, Merle Hodges.
• 71st District House incumbent Charlie Roth, Republican, and his Democrat challenger, Julie McKenna.
• Republican Randy Duncan and Democrat Gary Swartzendruber, Saline County Commission District 1 candidates.
The forum format makes this a fast-moving affair. Candidates are
limited to one-minute opening statements. They also are limited while
they answer questions from a panel of local media representatives. Then
they answer questions from the audience and get a one-minute closing
statement.
There is no mercy for the long-winded. They are cut off if they try to hog the microphone.
One can read about the forum in the newspaper or watch it later on
Access TV, which will air the program in the coming days. Those are
good ways to learn a candidate’s positions.
But nothing takes the place of sitting in the same room and watching
the action. Readers should come to the forum and give it a try.
— Tom Bell
Editor & Publisher
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333 Opinion Line
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To participate, call the Journal at 785-823-6464, extension 333. You do not have to leave your name.
Recent calls include...
"What happened to we the people? I keep hearing about the new swimming
pool and the plans they have, but it was put to a public vote and was
denied. Don't the votes count any more in this country?"
"Who is going to tell me to stop these practices at Halloween,
Christmas and Thanksgiving, and tell me to study the Bible. You live
your life for your family as you want to and I will live mine, and I'm
not going to tell you, based on my religion beliefs, what you need to
do."
"A Tennessee woman is holding the penguins for ransom. Who knows where she is grabbing them at?"
"To the person that said to stop pagan practices at Halloween,
Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just stop what you are doing right now. The
first article in the Bill of Rights said whatever religion we want to
do we can practice."
"How about putting the movie theater back on the north end instead of letting the greedy people on the south end have it?"
"It's a disgrace that Martha Stewart is in jail for supposedly lying
when our top government officials lie all the time and get by with it.
Case in point: lying to the the public about the war in Iraq."
"Even the more heavy sedated Bush supporters must be concerned with the phony boloney coming from the Bush campaign."
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