Surprises at candidate’s meeting!
A couple days before the panel discussion introducing the two candidates for sheriff was held, I was informed that we had no moderator.
Not good.
Actually, I had tried to get about seven different people to be the moderator and all had excuses. (Some of them were really lousy excuses in my mind.}
So… since I have interviewed many people over the years - I could do this.
And then I decided it’s not going to be a debate. Reason? I hate debates. I have a short attention span and lose concentration easily! So their responses were limited to two minutes. And not every candidate is good at debating.
Plus, it was “my party”! That’s what I call it when I have to do all the planning.
Candidates accepted.
Anyway, I had already invited the two candidates for sheriff to participate at a meeting of the Cannon Falls Area TRIAD. It would be on Cable TV and Youtube.
The night before the presentation I was told that there was a problem for one of the candidates. He had just been put on administrative leave from his police department and had his gun taken away. (That last part seems a little dramatic but that’s the way they play it.)
The problem was that neither the candidate nor the public could know what he was being accused of.
Didn’t we just go through something like this out in Washington, D.C.?
What do we do with this?
So I thought it would be best if I mentioned the situation to the audience before the program began. Both candidates agreed to let me do it. One wanted to express his understanding of the problem and the other one wanted to say that he had nothing to do with the accusation.
My problem was that I couldn’t think of any words that weren’t sensitive to the issue! I asked a couple other folks and we were all stumped.
So it was suggested I just let someone in the audience ask it.
And I did.
Googled the questions!
Now I had already “googled” other questions and run them by members of the TRIAD board.
We came up with some real “stoppers”!
Example.: Why do you want to be sheriff?
OK. The other questions were a little better.
Then came input from the audience…
First was the question about the administrative leave. That was handled as mentioned.
Then another member of the audience had brought a sign to emphasize his point. He wanted to know when the deputies were getting body cameras.
This got to be a little tense as he had his own concerns and was vigorously defending them to local police.
I was getting a little uncomfortable with the situation and got up from my chair as moderator to be prepared for… I didn’t know what!
And I didn’t know what I would do since I liked both of them and also realized that they’re both bigger than me!
But everyone settled down and the “party” went on.
Vote for…?
So… now do you know who to vote for?
More than one person said… either way we’ve got a good candidate for sheriff!
