To hear local candidates answer questions and question each other live one last time before the Nov. 6 General Election, come to the 2012 Candidates forum hosted by The Covington News and chamber at 6 p.m. tonight at the Newton College and Career Academy, 144 Ram Drive, Covington.
The forum will be moderated by The News' Publisher Charles Hill Morris Jr. and by Hunter Hall, president of the Covington-Newton County Chamber of Commerce, who will ask not only ask questions, but may provide opportunities for rebuttal and clarification.
In addition, each candidate will be given the opportunity to ask one question of his or her opponent.
The audience will also be invited to submit questions; the moderators will select questions at their discretion.
The tentative order of the forum will be county coroner, county chairman, District 3 board of commissioners, District 5 BOC, District 2 board of education, District 17 state senate and sheriff. The forum is expected to last about two hours.
The races for county chairman and sheriff will be given the largest chunks of time because those positions are county-wide and among the highest ranking in local government.
Both The News and chamber have developed questions for each candidate. The chamber's questions focus on economic development policy and spending and have been provided ahead of time. The News' questions will vary widely depending on the race; the candidates will not see these questions ahead of time.
For those who can't make it out to the forum, The News will be videotaping the event and will put those clips online later in the week.
In-depth video interviews with candidates
The News also previously conducted nearly hour-long video interviews with candidates for county chairman and sheriff. All candidates participated except for Democratic chairman candidate Marcus Jordan, who said he was not available during any of the times offered in September and October.
The videos were filmed by broadcast video students at The Newton County College and Career Academy, while the interviews themselves were conducted by The News' General Manager T. Pat Cavanaugh and Editor Gabriel Khouli. The interviews will be posted at CovNews.com this week.
