Candidate forum set for April 18

Congressional hopefuls to take the stage at Raven Theater
Eight candidates who hope to represent California’s 2nd Congressional District will take to the stage of the Raven Performing Arts Theater to answer questions on Wednesday, April 18 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
“I thought, we’ve got a great, engaged, active community and I thought they deserved it. So I decided to take the initiative and organize the event,” said Healdsburg councilmember Jim Wood.
“The idea was that this is the first time we’ve had an open congressional seat in quite a while. With the redistricting process. Mike Thompson is no longer representing us here. I think Healdsburg is a community that’s pretty tuned in to the world that’s going on around them and that they should have an opportunity to listen to the congressional candidates speak.”
The forum will be moderated by Rollie Atkinson, publisher of the Healdsburg Tribune and Windsor Times. According to Wood, each candidate will be given time for a brief introduction, after which four to five questions will be asked of all candidates.
For now, the questions are top secret, and some may even change on the evening of the event.
“I have some high school students who have volunteered to help, and they’ll collect possible questions from people as they come in. I don’t know how many questions we’ll be able to have in that timeframe, but certainly we want to get a question or even two in from the audience,” Wood said.
Wood noted that 2012 is a peculiar election year, one that has resulted in a bumper crop of aspiring politicians.
“I think it’s an unusual opportunity with this many candidates, I think it’s really important for the future of this area to have someone in that congressional seat who can really represent our interests in Healdsburg and Sonoma County. It’s challenging because really the bulk of the candidates are from south of us. Tiffany Renee is the only Sonoma County candidate. I think it’s even more important, then, to make sure people can find a candidate they can connect with and hopefully support them,” Wood said.
“I hope we’ll have another debate before the general election. This is a really unusual year because we have the redistricting and the open primary so people can vote for whoever they choose, and there’s the presidential election as well. So we’ll have a runoff election in November. I can’t imagine that any one gets 50 percent with that many candidates.”
The forum is free, but locals who want good seats may want to arrive at the Raven early.
“I think we’re going to have a good crowd. I’m hoping for 200 plus,” said Healdsburg mayor Gary Plass.
Lynda Hopkins can be reached at Ly***@hb*****.com.