Last night, The Splash hosted a candidate forum where the community was able to meet city council candidates as well as those running for Spokane Valley Fire Commissioner and Spokane Superior Court judge. There were very few Liberty Lake voters who don’t already know the candidates in attendance. The room was full of students, candidates, their families, and current councilmembers.
City council candidates fielded questions from a panel of local high school students. The candidates were respectful of each other, stayed within their allotted time, and provided direct, thoughtful, yet predictable answers. It was refreshing to see political candidates be civil and mature. As a civics lessons for the students, the exercise was as huge success. However, as a way for the voters to know where candidates stand on the issues it was uninspiring.
While the responses from the candidates were thoughtful and complete; there was nothing new. Responses were no different than had been previously read about in newspaper interviews, videos, or social media. One reason for this is the format of this type of forum. Since there were no follow-up questions, only a handful of question, and no challenges to positions the audience was not able to learn much about the candidates.
The standout performance last night was that of the high school students whose questions were deep, relevant, and mature.
In short, it was a nice event. It would be great if more voters were more involved and are able to ask more questions.
The next opportunity to hear from the candidates will be the Liberty Lake Candidate Forum hosted by the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce on Monday, October 16 from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM at Liberty Lake Elementary. The event is free. Click Here to RSVP.
