I attended the first hour of the Dillon candidates’ forum. I couldn’t stay for whatever time the session ended. For the future, I would recommend switching the format. Rather than starting off by having the moderators have the candidates introduce themselves and then ask questions of each, perhaps asking questions submitted by the attendees would make the event more enlightening. Answers to these type questions would be just as or even more revealing of the candidates’ reasons for running and their positions. It is a certainty that candidates would include their qualifications as part of their answers, as any good politician would.

After a half hour or even an hour of this approach, were the moderators unimpressed with the results of that questioning, they could take the remaining time to ask their prepared questions, some of which seemed to be “snowballs.”

If a candidate forum is, ideed, a chance to get to know those running for office better, then this session may have satisfied some of the attendees.  I came away thinking that it might have been a better opportunity.