Candidate Forum Part 1: Hard Work Differentiating Candidates

First of all, I'd like to thank the League of Women's Voters for putting together the candidates forum.

That lead paragraph sums up why candidates forums like the one held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Geneva Public Library are so valuable—and why they often leave the audience members scratching their heads.

Six School Board candidates, five aldermanic candidates and two Park Board candidates squared off Sunday in the library's meeting room, but there was "no blood," as they say, and very few answers that distinguished one candidate's position from another's on most issues.

As with any forum, time is limited, so after the obligatory thank you to the LOWV, the response to almost every question is the Readers Digest Condensed version. True too—and this is part of the reporting challenge for any local election—is that candidates often all say the same things.

You can't blame them. It's not easy speaking in public, and there often truly is general consensus on an issue. And often, the solution is multifaceted or requires additional discovery. Candidates don't want to offend any voters or do any damage to their campaign, so the stuff you hear generally is extremely tactful and meant to please an audience.

The result is that it's hard for you, the voter, to know who to vote for.

Having said that, part of our job as reporters is to help you as best we can to deliver information that can help you make that decision. So, in the following short series, we'll write a story on each of the races based on the information presented at Sunday's forum.

Call this story the introduction to the "forum" series, as well as to Geneva Patch's coverage of the 2011 local elections.

Before we get too far into the brass tacks, however, it is really is right to thank the Central Kane LOWV for hosting this forum. It was a chance to see the candidates firsthand, get a little of their background and feel for who they are as human beings. The forum was well attended—standing-room-only for the City Council and School Board portions—and probably as good an example of local democracy in action as you can find.

Here are the cast of characters in the April 5 contested elections:

CITY COUNCIL

First Ward

• Chuck Brown (incumbent)
• Esther Barclay
• Zachary Ploppert

Third Ward

• Becky Hruby
• Dean Kilburg

SCHOOL BOARD
(Six candidates vying for three seats.)

• Mary Stith (incumbent)
• Kelly Nowak (incumbent)
• Leslie Juby (incumbent)
• Michael McCormick
• George Jackowiec
• Robert Cabeen

 PARK BOARD

• Susan Vanderveen (incumbent)
• Sherry O'Berry