Candidate Forum for Bristol Town Council Well Attended

The Candidate forum hosted by the Rhode Island Voter Coalition last week at the Old State House in Bristol was by all accounts, a good night.

The hall was filled to capacity, and eleven of the 14 candidates who are running attended. They were Tony Murgo, Nat  Colouro, Diane Campbell, Ethan Tucker, Stephen Brigidi, Halsey Herreshoff, Mary Parella, Greg Raposa, Jack Francis, and Mike Cabral.

Our Moderator was Jon Decker, a senior at Roger Williams University majoring in Political Science. Our Time keeper was Rob Kendle, a junior, also of Roger Williams, majoring in Political Science. Dillon Kelly, also from Roger Williams, who thought he was in for a relaxing night watching the candidate forum, was called upon impromptu, and agreed to "man" one of the microphones. (thanks Dillon) They all did an amazing job!

The event was video-taped by Luke Latessa, a student at Mt. Hope High School and it will be shown on Full channel and Cox TV at a date to be announced.  It will also be uploaded to our Vimeo account and be available online.

The questions from the audience were many and varies covering school budgets, pensions, budgets, ideas for our waterfront, and more.

The candidates that participated are to be commended for their courage to "face the unknown" and be ready to respond to whatever questions their future constituents asked of them. The audience was most appreciative of this format and all felt that they really "connected" with the candidates on a personal note.  Some of the remarks had us all laughing...i.e., Mike Cabral: "If Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy had a baby... it would be me"  as a way of describing his basic platform.

I, personally, have changed two of my votes after last night's forum.

I am hoping that folks will comment on this blog on who you liked and why?

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