By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The 830 Times and Southwest Texas College will host a forum for local candidates in three contested races on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
The forum will begin at 6 p.m. on Oct. 8 and will be held in the auditorium (Building M) on the Southwest Texas College Campus, 207 Wildcat Drive.
Candidates in three contested races in the November General Election will have a chance to answer a slate of questions developed by The 830 Times and to interact with members of the public who attend.
The three featured races are those for Val Verde County Sheriff, Val Verde County Tax Assessor Collector and County Commissioner Precinct 1.
Both of the candidates for Val Verde County Tax Assessor Collector have told The 830 Times they will attend. They are the incumbent Elodia “Loly” Garcia, the Democratic Party nominee, and Maricar Ortega Chattler, the Republican Party nominee.
Both of the candidates for County Commissioner Precinct 1 have told The 830 Times they will attend. They are Alfinio “Al” Flores, the Republican Party nominee, and Kerr Wardlaw, the Democratic Party nominee.
Only one of the candidates for Val Verde County Sheriff has told The 830 Times he will participate in the forum. The incumbent, Joe Frank Martinez, the Democratic Party nominee, has told The 830 Times he will attend.
The Republican Party nominee, Rogelio “Roger” Hernandez, has told The 830 Times he will not be able to attend.
The candidates for U.S. House of Representatives, District 23, who are the incumbent, Republican Tony Gonzales, and the challenger, Democrat Santos Limon, and the candidates for the Texas House of Representatives, District 74, who are the incumbent, Democrat Eddie Morales, and the challenger, Republican Robert Garza, have all been invited to attend the forum.
Candidates will each be given two minutes to introduce themselves to the audience.
The moderator for the event will be Joel Langton, publisher of The 830 Times.
“We just want to give people a chance to size the candidates up in an unbiased forum,” said Langton. “We really try to serve our great community in every way we can and this is one more chance to do that. Most of all, a huge thanks to Southwest Texas College and their professor Josh Overfelt who teamed up with us to make this happen. So much can happen in our community through partnerships.”
There will be four questions in total for each set of candidates; the even number of questions will allow each candidate to respond first to two questions. Candidates will be given three minutes to answer each question.
The questions will not be provided to candidates in advance of the forum.
At the end of the question-and-answer session, candidates will be given a minute-and-a-half to make their closing statements.
Following the question-and-answer session, candidates are invited to stay and visit with those attending.
The forum is free and open to the public.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
