Carbondale Bytelife

A little more than 50 people, predominently students, attended the "Meet the Mayoral Candidates Forum" at the SIU Student Health Center Wednesday night

Not everyone in the audience had an opportunity to be heard or hear enough. Moderator Bill Freivogel wasn’t very consistent in keeping the speakers compliant with time limits for responses to either moderator or audience questions. In addition, he cut the meeting off after only an hour and twenty minutes - right about the time the audience and the speakers really started to attain their “voice” and speak more directly and impassionedly about subjects near and dear to them and the students in attendance.

Despite that, the presentations were interesting. Everyone behaved. There was no name calling or slams against anyone. Very civil.

The surprise of the night might have been Pepper Holder getting his voice at the end of the meeting and capturing the interest of students.

What I came away with from the meeting was the recognition of four very distinct styles of communication that the candidates are using to garner votes and educate the electorate. I will be writing about that phenomena in my Ultimate Answer blog this week and assessing candidate strengths and weaknesses.

Labels: election

# posted by Bob @ 10:03 PM