Local candidates had the opportunity to meet face to face with constituents at a candidates forum on Sunday.
Each candidate for contested office in Wood County was invited and nearly all attended.
Lee McLaird, president of the Bowling Green League of Women Voters, said she would like to have people let her know specifically how they felt about the event.
The is the second year for this format, and McLaird said she believed people liked it. The past practice of having a candidate debate needed both candidates to attend. If one didn’t, the other candidate was not invited to speak, she said.
Candidates were given 10 minutes to answer questions at a table before rotating to the next table. A league representative served as a facilitator at each table.
The event was co-hosted by the Leage of Women Voters of Bowling Green and Perrysburg Area.
John Zanfardino said the candidate forum was interesting.
“It’s a really good way to have a small interaction,” said Zanfardino, who used to be a Bowling Green City Council member.
He said he thinks the previous system of holding a debate between candidates may have been more informative. He said some good answers were probably heard at tables that won’t be known to anyone outside the five or six people sitting there.
Zanfardino, who called himself an established Democrat, asked each state candidate their stance on Issue 1, which will eliminate gerrymandering.
He said Ohio Rep. Haraz Ghanbari, a Republican, evaded answering.
Opponent Jan Materni, a Democrat, voiced her support.
Janet Park, a member of the BG league, said the candidates were interesting and it was good for voters to meet them face to face and hear them express their views.
Both Jeremy Schroeder, the Democratic contender for county recorder, and Sean Elliott, the Democratic candidate for county treasurer, said they both liked this format.
Molly Laflin said a Republican candidate, when visiting her table, said some counties had to deal with illegal aliens and there were 20,000 of them in Springfield who were creating hardships on the city with housing and schooling.
Those people are not illegal and were invited by the city to help with revitalization efforts, Laflin said.
The candidate’s response was he didn’t realize that, she said.
“I am concerned that anybody running for public office believes the stories that are coming out of Springfield about the cats and dogs,” Parks said.
Laflin also said she heard conflicting statements from the county recorder candidates on the software used in that office.
Republican Conner Rose said the software is not geographically indexes while Schroeder said he heard rumors that it was indexed by name, checked, and found it is geographically indexed, she said.
“I don’t know what the truth is,” she said.
Rose also addressed rumors that he allegedly accessed property owner information, including financial details, and used it to find dirt on his opponent.
“I ran a clean campaign in the primary and I’ve run a clean campaign thus far in the general election,” Rose said. “I’m not going to engage in that. I’ve focused on the issue is the office and my goals running for this office. If my opponent wants to have all of that noise, they can … but I’m going to stay above it and stay clean.’”
Debra Greenley Gorman, president of the Perrysburg Area League of Women Voters, said last year their candidates were asked questions with answers recorded and posted online. She said they will continue to partner with the Bowling Green league on even years as they share many of the same candidates.
Also in attendance were Republican Ted Bowlus, the incumbent, and Democrat Phillip Chrysler, who were running for Wood County commissioner; Republican Jane Spoerl, the incumbent for county treasurer; and Tom Pruss, an Independent running for the 9th District U.S House of Representatives.
Not in attendance were incumbents U.S. Congressman Bob Latta and Ohio Senator Theresa Gavarone, who reported having conflicts.
The league received no response to their invitation from Keith Mundy, who is opposing Latta; Paloma De La Fuente, who is opposing Gavarone; and 9th District Representative Marcy Kaptur, who is the incumbent, and her challenger Derek Merrin.
Also assisting in the forum, held at the Veterans Memorial Building at City Park, were the Bowling Green chapter of the American Association of University Women, the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce and the Bowling Green State University Retirees Association.
