By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
The Washington Daily News will conduct a candidates forum at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 in the Beaufort County Community College auditorium.
The forum will feature candidates for Beaufort County sheriff and the Board of Commissioners as well as the two contenders for the District Court seat held by retiring Judge Sam Grimes.
On the invitations list are the following commissioner candidates:
• Democrats Jerry Evans, Sonya Shamseldin and incumbent Ed Booth;
• Republican incumbents Al Klemm and Stan Deatherage;
• and unaffiliated hopeful Bertie Arnhols.
Also on the invitations list are the sheriff candidates — Republican Donald Dixon and incumbent Democrat Alan Jordan — and judicial candidates Watsi Sutton and Darrell Cayton Jr.
Kellie Harris Hopkins, Beaufort County’s elections director, will serve as moderator of the forum.
The format will mirror the structure of the Daily News’ previous candidates forum, held on April 13.
The newspaper is asking its readers to suggest questions for the candidates.
All submitted questions should be general enough to apply to all of the candidates in a given race, and personal attacks or single-candidate questions will not be allowed. Questions that do not meet these criteria will not be considered for use at the forum.
To submit questions or obtain more information about this event, call 940-4210 or e-mail your query to jonathan@wdnweb.com.
Because of time constraints, no questions will be taken directly from the audience during the forum. Attendees who do not submit questions in advance will be asked to write out their questions at the door.
All approved questions will be placed in a bowl and selected at random by Hopkins, who will ask the questions on stage.
More audience-supplied questions will be used for this round than in the previous forum.
“The Daily News, when possible, conducts candidates forums so voters may become better informed about the candidates and their positions on issues,” said Contributing Editor Mike Voss. “The newspaper believes that the more informed voters are, the better they can make decisions that affect their lives. We encourage voters and others to attend the forums, which provide venues for voters to share their concerns with candidates and for candidates to deliver their messages to the voters.”