In preparation for May elections, The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County will hold two 2018 Radford City Election forums in April: one for School Board and one for mayoral and city council candidates.
A candidate forum is held in order to familiarize voters with the slate of candidates and their policy stances.
The School Board candidate forum will be held on Thursday, April 12, and the City Council and Mayoral candidate forum will be held on Tuesday, April 17.
Both events will take place from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Radford High School auditorium (50 Dalton Drive).
The forums are organized by the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, Virginia and supported by the Radford Chamber of Commerce and the NAACP Montgomery-Radford-Floyd NAACP Branch 709, all non-partisan groups.
“As you know, the major function for the League of Women Voters nationally and in Montgomery County and Radford is to hold candidate forums and we’ve done so for years,” Mary Houska, voter service co-chair for the local League said. “We are pleased to be helping Radford this year.”
The moderator of the city council and mayoral forum will be Charles Warren, the retired President of Lynchburg College.
A forum is structured around policy questions posed by the audience that night.
The questions to avoid repetition and make sure they are all policy questions, and each question will be posed to each candidate.
“It is our hope that the audience will come away from the forum not only understanding the candidates’ positions, but that they can observe how candidates are answering the questions,” she said. “That often helps voters make up their minds depending on how thoughtfully and thoroughly the questions are answered.”
The League of Women Voters of the United States is a nonpartisan organization that works to encourage informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy, according to its web site.
The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, Virginia does not host candidate forums in primary elections (Virginia on June 12, 2018), but, while they attempt to organize them for general elections, candidates have not participated for 20 years, said Houska.
“We hope [citizens] will join us as we listen to each candidate speak so that Radford residents will feel confident in their decisions on election day, May 1,” she said.
The Radford News Journal will have more in-depth election coverage in upcoming editions.
— Liz Kirchner
