Forums, Radio and more Doors

Well, we are in the home stretch with less than two weeks to go until the April 7th election. It's unfortunate that most of the folks in "the know" are predicting a light turnout for this election. With no bond, tax or major issues on the ballot, that leaves only the school board and city council seat races for folks to turn out and vote for. Historically the turnout has hovered around 15-20% in this type of election. With record settind wind speeds over the past couple days, I'll be out mending wounded campaign signs again. As if installing and reinstalling them once wasn't enough, I'll be out at least one more time to check on them.

This past week has been a busy one with the League of Women Votes candidate forum, a radio interview on KFRU's Morning Meeting and another forum last night hosted by the NAACP.

I felt good about my responses at the LWV Forum held at the Columbia Public Library. I wish we'd been able to spend more time as city council candidates fielding questions about city wants and needs. Unfortunately, we were scheduled to share the room with the school board candidates, and they have 9 men and women running for 2 spots. Even with a couple of them absent, it put a time constraint on the hosts.

My opponent and I were invited to sit in for about 40 minutes on the Morning Meeting with Simon and Renee. Renee participated by phone as she was recovering from the flu. If it was of the same variety as the one that nearly took me out three weeks ago, I wish her a speedy recovery. That was no fun. I did enjoy, however, the chance to meet and visit with Simon. I was apprehensive about the live call-in aspect, but it actually worked out just fine. It sure makes you appreciate a radio hosts' ability to think on their feet and adapt to a variety of subject matter and caller intentions.

Finally, we (city council and school board candidates) were invited to the NAACP Candidate forum last night. Another night where you hoped for a little more time, but had to understand that there were a lot of folks up there hoping to make their impression upon the crowd. Most of the questions for the city council were about issues that are hot buttons right now. Police interaction with citizens, taser use and stimulus money.

With just one more radio interview next week, it's down to door-knocking and meeting as many folks as possible at this point. I'm excited and anxious at the same time.