Beginning at 6 p.m. that night, The Cadiz Record and WKDZ will co-sponsor a public forum featuring candidates in contested races, which includes Sheriff, County Attorney and Magistrates for Districts 1, 4, 5 and 7.
I will serve as co- moderater of the forum along with Alan Watts of WKDZ.
At the forum, voters in attendance will have the opportunity to submit their own questions, which will be reviewed and whittled down to the best of the bunch.
More details on the forum will be discussed in next week’s issue of The Cadiz Record, and Alan and others will talk about it on the air in the days leading to May 10.
I’m guessing Trigg County voters will have plenty of interest in an event like this. If you’re not sure whether you’ll attend or if it’s worth it, let me try to persuade you.
First of all, the basics: Trigg County’s Primary is partisan, so registered Democrats will vote only for Democrats and Republicans will vote for Republicans. Because of that, we’ll only be focusing on those races that have opposition for each party’s nomination.
In this week’s issue, we’ve featured the candidates for Sheriff (two Democrats, two Republicans), County Attorney (two Democrats) and Magistrates in Districts 1 (two Democrats) and 7 (two Democrats).
There is no Republican candidate for County Attorney or District 7 Magistrate, so each of those races will be decided in the Primary. There is one Republican running for District 1 Magistrate, and he’ll run against the winner of the Democrat vote in the Primary.
Next week, we’ll feature Magistrate candidates for Districts 4 and 5. We’ve had to split it this way because of the number of candidates in each race – two Republicans and five Democrats in District 4 and three Republicans and four Democrats in district 5.
It seems some folks in this community have taken a greater interest in local government in recent years, which I suppose accounts for the number of candidates on the ballot.
That, to me, means it’s more important for voters to be educated on the candidates so they can make the most informed decision. And a great way to become more informed is to attend the forum and make your voice heard.
You can also view this as a primer for the forum we plan to hold before the General Election in November. That forum will include all contested races, among which are Judge-Executive and Property Valuation Administrator.
The people you elect are the people who will be at the front of the line when it comes to doing what’s best for Trigg County, and this might end up being an important time in our community’s history. Things are changing, and who you elect might make the difference in whether those changes are positive, negative or lateral.
Don’t just vote with your heart. Use your head, too. And help your head by attending our forum.
Justin McGill is executive editor of The Cadiz Record and can be reached by email at jmcgill@cadizrecord.com.
