Local voters will get the chance to hear directly from the candidates for the Longview City Council and Kelso City Council in two nights of debates.
A debate series will be held 7 p.m. Oct. 4 and Oct. 11 at Lower Columbia College’s Rose Center for the Arts. The event was organized by the Cowlitz Civil Dialogue Project, who held a series of panel discussions digging into pressing community issues in 2022, is co-sponsored by the Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce and will be broadcast and recorded by KLTV.
The first night of debates will include Christopher Ortiz and Erik Halvorson from Longview, Ruth Kendall and Randy Knox from Longview, and Keenan Harvey and Garrett Colkitt from Kelso. The second night includes Mike Wallin and Kalei LaFave, Ramona Leber and Keith Young, Jim Hill and Aaron Bunn, and Veryl Anderson and Scott Olson.
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The debates will be split up by position, with each pair of competing candidates taking the stage for 30 minutes. Previous debates and election forums have placed all the candidates on stage at the same time, but Civil Dialogue co-founder Andre Stepankowsky said the group wanted a more focused pairing of candidates.
“We think that will be more lively and give voters a clearer juxtaposition of the candidates running against each other,” Stepankowsky said.
The debate will be moderated by retired Cowlitz County Judge Stephen Warning and Lower Columbia Head Start spokeswoman Melanee Evans and emceed by Longview Downtowners President Josh Carter.
Questions will be provided by the moderators or can be submitted by local voters through the Chamber of Commerce website. Candidates will get time to answer questions and offer rebuttals to their opponent’s statement, as well as ask a question directly to their opponent.
There are four competitive elections for the Longview City Council on this year’s ballot and three competitive races for the Kelso City Council.
Stepankowsky said the debates this year would help set the ground for the Civil Dialogue Project to put on larger debates during the 2024 election, which will feature multiple countywide elections and a high-profile race for the House of Representatives.
