Low Attendance at Republican Candidate Debate
Four of the eight Republican Armstrong County Commissioner candidates answered audience questions during ‘Candidates Night’ at Lenape Tech last night.
by Jonathan Weaver
More than a dozen Armstrong County residents attended a Republican forum last night in the Lenape Technical School cafeteria to ask questions and better prepare for the May 19 Primary Election.
In a round-robin format, candidates Patty Kirkpatrick, Wade Bowser, Jorn Jensen and Scott Davis each responded to such questions regarding the Belmont Complex in East Franklin Township, Clean and Green land assessments and what they felt was the most important part of county government.
Downtown Kittanning Inc. President Ray Voller said although the business organization originally didn’t want to be involved in the debate, board members agreed it was important to inform local voters.
“With eight (Republican) candidates running for commissioner, it was very important that the voters of Armstrong County had the opportunity to ask questions of the candidates and get to know each individual – their ideas, background, life experiences and their views on the future of Armstrong County,” Voller said.
Kittanning Resident Linda Hemmes – who has participated in more than 30 ‘Candidates Night’ events with the Butler area League of Women’s Voters - moderated the evening questions.
Hemmes said, although only four candidates chose to attend, all eight candidates were invited – with substitutes not permitted.
Candidates could also make both opening and closing statements and issue a short rebuttal if requested
Junior Abbey Laux, of Ford City, hoped to learn more about how county government works by volunteering with five of her Advanced Government classmates.
At the request of Administrator Dawn Kocher-Taylor, the six students split between 11th and 12th graders collected note cards from participating voters.
Although she has never considered running for public office and cannot legally vote yet, Laux – 17 - is the vice-president of the Natural Resources shop at Lenape Tech.
National Honor Society and SkillsUSA students also greeted voters as they entered the school after law enforcement students directed voters to parking.
A Democratic ‘Candidates Night’ will be held in the school cafeteria this Thursday.
Local News | jweaver May 8, 2015
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By jerry6, May 8, 2015 @ 8:17 AM
I think that most people know who they are voting for and that is one reason for the low attendance at this event. Another is there were to many other things going on last night. That is like all these people putting vote for me signs all over the place. A woman on tv said she pays no attention to these signs and another man said they do nothing but clutter up.
By jorn jensen, May 8, 2015 @ 9:37 AM
Attendance was 25. This was a good event and venue. The audio system worked, the auditorium was comfortable, and the student participation was the best. We had the time to answer questions and state our positions on the topics.
I am very glad that I participated.
By elderman, May 8, 2015 @ 2:29 PM
I want to thank the candidates for the office of Armstrong County Commissioner who made themselves available to the public at last night’s event at Lenape Tech. I think that Patty Kirkpatrick, Wade Bowser, Jorn Jensen, and Scott Davis should be applauded for their willingness and concern to reach out to the public to answer questions, make comments, and question some of the comments made by the other candidates. It also gave the public an opportunity to judge how the candidates expressed their views and conducted themselves in a public setting.
The forum of the meeting allowed the candidates more time to express their views and bring additional information to light than the meeting held by the Farm Bureau. The opportunity to comment on other candidates views was also helpful. These comments did not go into a full debate but were more point/counterpoint. I left the meeting feeling that I had a much better understanding of the candidates and how they would perform as a representative for Armstrong County.
This being said, I do not have that same insight for those candidates who chose not to attend what will most likely be their final opportunity to publicly address what should be the most important group in Armstrong County, the VOTERS. Most of the candidates who chose not to attend this debate are newcomers to the political arena and have no record of how they would perform in an elected position. This event would have given them an opportunity to further their candidacy by making their views more apparent to the voters. I am disappointed that all the candidates did not choose to make themselves available to the public, in a public setting where audience and candidate interaction could be observed. What could be more important for a candidate?
I’m glad that you asked! Apparently the answer, if you believe what has been written in the local newspapers, is that the Armstrong County Republican Committee had their meeting scheduled for the same evening. The Kittanning Paper article dated April 29, 2015 details this conflict. It is perplexing to me that the Republican Committee would not be flexible enough to make some accommodation in their schedule that would allow all the candidates attend last night’s session. I feel insulted that the committee would think their meeting to be more important than allowing the voters the maximum exposure to the candidates and thus be better informed. And the Republican Committee had ample time to accommodate this change as the KP article states that they knew about it since the prior meeting. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!!!!
The Kittanning Paper report for this event is titled “Low Attendance at Republican Candidate Debate”. Turnout for the meeting was ok, not great. I’m sure attendance would have been much higher if not for the inflexibility of the Republican Committee. Any concerns about impartiality as stated by Mr. Baker in the Kittanning Paper article of April 29, 2015 were totally unfounded; the meeting was conducted very well. And I might add thanks to the Lenape Tech students who participated in the nights activities. The six students from the “Advanced Government” class were there to witness “How County Government Works”. Instead they got to see how a Republican Committee feels that it is more important to control the election than to educate the voters on the candidates.
Adam Grafton
South Bend Township
By jorn jensen, May 9, 2015 @ 7:41 AM
Wow! Well-stated, Adam Grafton. YOU get it.
“What could be more important for a candidate?” than a chance to meet the voters at a meet-the-candidates night.
All of the Lenape students that helped with this event got a good view - including the culinary students - the snickerdoodles were excellent (I had more than one)! Look at the picture, above, the students made the banners, the name tags - this was a perfect venue.
Adam’s closing statement says it all for how we let down the students that will be voting in the future - “The six students from the “Advanced Government” class were there to witness “How County Government Works”. Instead they got to see how a Republican Committee feels that it is more important to control the election than to educate the voters on the candidates.”
I thank Patty Kirkpatrick, Scott Davis and Wade Bowser for showing up and understanding the importance of meeting with the people. And I thank the students, Lenape Tech, DKI and voters for making the event happen.
Of note, Anthony Shea, democratic candidate for commissioner, attended and was in the audience. After the event, he suggested that all candidates, immediately after the election is over, take a ‘zone’ of Armstrong County and go and retrieve ALL posters and bring them to a common point to distribute each back to each candidate. This makes a lot of sense - gets that mess cleaned up completely, quickly, and efficiently - saves time and gasoline. A common-sense solution to a bunch of highway litter. And, for the trolls, yes, I put up signs also, against my ideals, and I will remove them immediately after the election. The signs are a part of this process that I disagree with, but name recognition is it, unfortunately.
I believe that the republican committee owes an apology, for an insultingly-poor decision, to the voters, to DKI, to Linda Hemmes, to Dawn Kocher Taylor and the Lenape students and I request that Mike Baker make that public apology.
Now, let’s see how the meet the candidates for the democratic party turns out next week - maybe then, we’ll get an apology.
And people wonder why I state that we need to change our mindset in Armstrong County - electing more of the same will just get us more of the same.
By jorn jensen, May 9, 2015 @ 10:21 AM
Because of the late election this spring, I’ve been out weed-whacking around my signs. Sorry, not enough whacker string and gasoline to do all of the signs. Now the trolls can call me the anti-green candidate - they are so predictable.
By steve, May 9, 2015 @ 8:53 PM
Actually Jorn, your last comment is the definition of trolling. You would think a commissioner candidate would have better things to do than act like a 13 year old online.