In connection with our ongoing 2011 Ogden City Municipal Election, we're pleased to post this press release, which we received from mayoral candidate Steve Van Wagoner's campaign this morning, concerning the scheduling of three pre-primary election mayoral candidate debates, the first of which is set for Thursday, August 11, 2011:
Be sure to mark your calenders, folks. It appears that Ogden City political wonks will have plenty of chances prior to the September 13 primary election to take a good long look at all eight Ogden City mayoral candidates.Ogden City “First Mayoral Debate”
Ogden, Utah (August 03, 2011) –After the success of the last event “Meet your next Mayor”, held on July 28, 2011, a second event was agreed to by the seven candidates in attendance and on August 11th the candidates will meet again. Save the date because you will not want to miss this first election debate.
Thursday August 11, 2011 from 5:30 -7:30 PM the “First Mayoral Debate” will be held in the Lecture Hall in the Business Building, Room #BU162 at OWATC located at 200 North Washington Blvd, Ogden, UT 84404. The candidates will meet again for the “First Mayoral Debate” organized by the Vote Van Wagoner campaign. It will be an informal setting for the citizens to have their questions answered by all of the candidates. Once again we have invited all registered candidates and the community to come and meet the candidate(s) for the Ogden City Mayoral election scheduled for September 13, 2011.
Questions will be presented by the community and asked through a neutral moderator from out of the area. Each candidate will be given a one minute opportunity to answer the questions. The goal is for the citizens to ask the important questions that they want to know about and the focus will be on every aspect of Ogden City.
We look forward to full participation with the community, the candidates, and the press. The following candidates confirmed on July 28 that they would be willing to participate: Brandon Stephenson, Neil Hansen, Mike Caldwell, Susan Van Hooser, Jason Goddard, John Thompson, and Steven Van Wagoner.
You will also want to save the date of August 24, 2011 for the second debate organized by the Ogden Ethics Project. This debate will be held in the Browning Theater at Union Station from 6:30-8:30 PM.
We would also like to ask any willing organizations and citizens within Ogden City to help by sponsoring and/or hosting the third debate tentatively scheduled for September 01, 2011. We seek public input. The date may change but we hope this will help make all candidates feel comfortable and get everyone in Ogden City involved in our democracy.
Once again join the candidates on August 11, 2011 for the first Ogden City mayoral debate.
Steven Van Wagoner
Candidate for Mayor of Ogden City
(801)414-5773
www.voteVanWagoner.com
Update 8/6/11 10:21 a.m.: Oops! Looks like it might be "back to the drawing board" for Steve Van Wagoner's August 11 debate event. Per the ever-alert Dan S.: "Looks like only half the candidates will be at the August 11 debate:
Of course candidate squabbles over Ogden Municipal Election debate sponsorship, rules and format are really nothing new. In the interest of maximizing the number of opportunities for Emerald City voters to observe mayoral candidates to "strut their stuff" however, we'd hoped all candidates would ignore any irregularities and just go along with a sponsorship which candidate Neil Hansen rightly refers to as "unusual." Alas, it appears Ogden voters will have no such luck, and that at least four candidates will "play it by the standard candidate strategy book."
Update 8/10/11 9:00 a.m.: the SL Trib has a story up this reporting that five of the candidates for mayor will not attend the candidate forum organized by Candidate Waggoner. Who will be there? here's the story:
