Two candidate forums to go

The League of Women Voters has booked three pre-primary candidate forums, one for each of three contested races.

Tuesday night marked the first of these candidate forums. Some details of the event are in the news columns of this Gazette.

This forum was for the three candidates running for a one-year term as Ninth District Representative. Mary Dye, Pomeroy, was named to replace Susan Fagan, who resigned. She is now campaigning to be elected on her own. Richard Lathim, Pasco, and Kenneth Caylor, Othello, want the job as well.

Still upcoming are two more candidate forums.

Next to meet are the three candidates for mayor of Colfax. That meeting is at the library and is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 22. Incumbent G. Todd Vanek is seeking re-election for a second term. He is challenged by two former Colfax city councilmen, Don Henderson and J.W. Roberts.

Then, the following night, Thursday, July 23, the three candidates for mayor of Palouse will meet at the Community Center. It also starts at 7 p.m. Mayor Michael Echanove is being challenged by Brad Pearce and Connie Newman.

These forums give citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates, listen to their plans and proposals and ask them questions.

The general election is still a long way off. Yet, in each of these races, one of the candidates will be eliminated in the August primary.

That makes these forums and the opportunity to get to know the candidates important.

Then, after the November election, one of the candidates from each of these races will be responsible for shaping our futures. And nothing is more important than that.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher