Many candidates for Galesburg public offices will participate in a pair of upcoming forums sponsored by a trio of local organizations.
While the Galesburg NAACP has taken a lead role in these types of forums in past years, the NAACP will be joined by United Against Hate and PFLAG in co-sponsoring this year.
The first forum will be on Wednesday and feature candidates for Galesburg City Council.
One of the organizers Nancy Eberhard says that every council candidate has RSVPed with the exception of Thomas Roberts, running in Ward 3.
The second forum will be the following Wednesday, Mar. 1, and will be for District 205 school board candidates.
Both will be held at the Galesburg Public Library and start at 7 p.m.
Eberhard says the questions candidates face won’t have a particular theme but will try to “cover both recent issues and the normal range of events that each of the two bodies typically face in any given year.
Candidates will also get the chance to make an opening and closing statement.
Dr. Duane Oldfield, Chair of the Political Science Department at Knox College will be moderating the forum for the City Council candidates.
David Amor, former journalism professor at Knox College, will be moderating the forum for the School Board candidates.
Eberhard says all three of the sponsoring organizations, as well as members of the general public, submitted ideas for questions.
These were then consolidated by a team that included members of each of the sponsoring organizations to create a list that would fit within the time limits of the forum.
