Forum format detailed

A busy election season calls for tight limits on speaking time for candidates participating in the Warren County Candidate Forum Monday.

Moving from the traditional site at the county administration building to the Park Theater will assure ample seating for the live audience, but office-seekers will need to be prepared with a few well-chosen words, the event organizers stress.

The forum will be hosted jointly by McMinnville Public Radio 91.3-WCPI, MainStreetMedia, Ben Lomand Connect”s BLTV Channel 6 and the Park Theater.

The evening starts at 5 p.m. with candidates in contested races for seats on the 24-member Warren County Commission. Districts 1, 4, 5, 9,10, 11 and 12 feature a total of 23 aspirants. Each will have two minutes maximum for a brief self-introduction and statement summarizing their legislative and budget-setting priorities if elected.

Transitioning from county governance to the federal level, the forum invites party primary candidates for Fourth District U.S. House to address the voters from 6 to 6:15 p.m. Hopefuls seeking the 43^rd District Tennessee House seat will have the microphone from 6:15 to 6:30.

The time allotments will be determined by the number of candidates who report to the Park Theater lobby between 4:30 and 5:30 Monday. Their names will be put on the agenda and the available time divided equally among them, organizers note. The same procedure applies for Warren County school board hopefuls in contested races, who will take the stage from 6:30 to 6:45.

All the registered school board candidates will be afforded three minutes for a self-introduction and presentation of their qualifications and values and priorities in local public education.

“If the candidates cannot be at the Park for registration by 5:30, they should send an authorized representative to log them into the program,” the organizers noted.

The forum moves to the Warren County sheriff’s contest from 6:45 to 7:05. The county executive election will be featured from 7:05 to 7:25, and the program concludes with three seeking election as district attorney general for Tennessee’s 31^st Judicial District (Warren and Van Buren counties).

Candidates for sheriff, county executive and district attorney general will be allotted three minutes for an opening statement. The remaining time will be devoted to time-limited answers to questions submitted in advance by local voters.

Those questions — legibly printed with a 25-word limit — may be submitted in a sealed envelope no later than 3 p.m. Monday at the Main Street Media offices at the corner of Colville and High streets. The questions do not need to be signed.

They will remain unopened until delivered to the forum moderator — MTSU History Professor Amy Sayward — just before the forum begins at 5 p.m.

“Dr. Sayward will open the envelopes and screen them against apparently targeted, malicious or frivolous content,” organizers emphasize.  “We are hoping to have serious, thoughtful questions that would be appropriate for any of the candidates in a particular race.”

Candidates for district attorney are prohibited by ethical rules from engaging in questions about active or pending investigations or court proceedings.

The entire forum will be televised live on BLTV Channel 6 and its Facebook stream. Radio listeners can follow the action on McMinnville Public Public Radio 91.3-WCPI and Main Street Media’s WBMC 960 AM, which established news and public affairs leadership in local journalism beginning with its first year on the air in 1955.