Alisa Dougherty, Page Editor, and Kylie Kenyon, Page Editor, contributed to this report.
With elections coming up on Nov. 3, the Salem-Keizer NAACP is hosting a series of local candidate forums virtually. These will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 7, Thursday, Oct. 8 and Friday, Oct. 9 from 6-7:30 p.m. each night. This is the first local forum of its kind.
The Salem-Keizer NAACP is partnering with other organizations of color for this event, including PCUN, Mano a Mano, Latinos Unidos Siempre, Salem Coalition of Churches, Micronesian Islander Community, Sikh Seva Foundation NW, Temple Beth Sholom, Capitol City SURJ, S.O.S. (Save Our Selves) and Black Joy Oregon.These organizations represent members of the Latino, Pacific Islander, Sikh, Jewish and Black communities.
This is a critical election year at all levels of government. Salem-Keizer NAACP wanted to find more ways to engage and inform voters.
Sarah Evans
The forums will be broadcasted by CC Media, KTUP Radio Poder and KMUZ community radio. There will also be an online livestream on the Capitol Community Media Youtube channel. These broadcasts will be available in both English and Spanish. Links to the Youtube livestream for each night are at the bottom of this article and the Salem-Keizer NAACP website.
“The Salem-Keizer NAACP and all of our community partners submitted general questions they wanted to ask. We chose several questions for each night based on themes that we saw in everyone’s questions. Each candidate will be asked the same questions, regardless of their political party, and each will receive an equal amount of time to respond,” Sarah Evans from the Salem-Keizer NAACP said.
Although most of the questions for the forum are pre-chosen, people are able to submit their own questions in the chat of the Youtube livestream for a chance to have their question included.
“The organization decided that candidate forums were a great way to [engage and inform voters] because we could ask questions about issues that were important to communities of color,” Evans said. “The organization felt this was particularly important given all the events and dialogue that have been happening in recent months related to racial justice.”
Each night will feature a different slate of candidates including those running for certain Oregon House and Senate seats, the Keizer City Council, Keizer Mayor, the Marion and Polk County Boards of Commissioners and Marion County Clerk. Every candidate running in each race featured was invited to attend, although not every candidate agreed.
Wednesday night will feature Ramiro Navarro Jr. (HD-25), Teresa Alonso Leon (HD-22), Cathy Clark (Keizer Mayor), Laure Reid (Keizer City Council Position 1), Michael DeBlasi (Keizer City Council Position 1), Dylan Juran (Keizer City Council Position 2) and Michele Roland-Schwartz (Keizer City Council Position 3).
Thursday night will have Deb Patterson (SD 10), Taylor Rickey (SD 10), Paul Evans (HD 20), Selma Pierce (HD 20) and Daniel Jaffer (Polk County Commission).
Friday night will include Jaqueline Leung (HD 19), Brian Clem (HD 21), Jack Esp (HD 21), Ashley Carson Cottingham (Marion County Commission), Bill Burgess (Marion County Clerk) and Danielle Gonzalez (Marion County Clerk).
To watch the forums:
