The Greater Blytheville Area Chamber of Commerce will be hosting two candidate forums in which Chamber members as well as the public is invited to attend.
Liz Smith, executive director of the Chamber, said the first Candidate Forum will be April 30 and will feature the John Allen Nelson and Randy Carney, candidates for the Mississippi County Judge's race. The second forum will be held May 3 and will feature Barrett Harrison and David Burnett, candidates for the Arkansas State Senate District 15 race. Both events will take place from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. and will both be held at the Holiday Inn in Blytheville.
"One of the important points for people to know is that we do not endorse candidate as a Chamber," Smith said. "It is not our policy to endorse a particular candidate but we do want our membership and the public to make well informed choices and we obviously would like candidates elected who are going to best represent the interests that the Chamber of Commerce supports. Among elected officials who have the greatest impact on our agenda, the County Judge is certainly one of those."
Smith said the forum will follow a debate format in which each candidate will be asked the same 5-8 questions and will be given a limited amount of time to respond. Each candidate will be allowed to make a brief opening and closing statement. Smith said the questions will be formulated by the Chamber's Political Action Committee and its Executive Committee. The audience will not be allowed to ask questions.
"We will make lunch available from 11:30 a.m. until shortly after noon," Smith said. "A buffet will be open for $12 per person. So those who wish to dine can go through the buffet line and bring their food into the room. Those who do not wish to dine but wish to listen to the debate can show up at 12 at no cost."
Smith said both events will end promptly at 1 p.m. so candidates will be able to stay on a structured time schedule.
"The forums allow us to ask candidates about issues that are important to us and to get an understanding of where each candidate stands on those particular issues," Smith said. "The questions will relate to our priorities as a Chamber and our strategic plan. We are focused on a variety of issues, most especially economic growth and quality of life issues. Our volunteers spend a lot of time working on those issues in a variety of ways. One of the greatest assets that we have had is our relationship with our elected leaders. I believe that progress is only possible when all of them come to the table and truly work together. So it is very important to us that we share an understanding about what is important to us with our elected leadership."
The same format will be used in both forums. In both cases who starts and finishes will be chosen at random.
"It is open to everyone who wishes to come and we hope to have a good audience," Smith said. "We expect to follow a similar format in the fall in the mayor's race. At this point I don't know how that will be worked out but we have had a forum like this for the mayor's race before. The U.S. Congressional race has multiple candidates in it at this point so we have decided to wait until after the primary election when it has been narrowed down to a Democrat and a Republican to invite them in for this type of forum or to invite them in for some type of speaking engagement."
Smith said once the May Primary Election has passed the candidates for U.S. Senate will be asked to speak at one of the Chamber's monthly luncheons.
"So we will not be putting together a debate for them but hope those candidates will come and be a keynote speaker at lunch," Smith said. "We also would like to have Congressman Marion Berry back to speak to us before his term ends. We want to try to make the candidates available to our members and to the public. It is going to be a very political year for us."
czolman@blythevillecourier.com