MELD (Membership Engagement and Leadership Development) is a statewide organization of League representatives from different parts of Washington State. On April 11, our MELD (Pod 2) group met to compare and contrast different candidate forum formats, since many of us are starting to plan 2024 candidate events. Shelley Kneip, who is the League of Women Voters of Washington State (LWVWA) board member responsible for candidate forums, attended this MELD meeting and – with all her background knowledge and experience – contributed much richness and depth to the conversation.
How do different leagues manage their forums?
In
Snohomish County, candidates participate in forums with two or more candidates who are running in the same race or for very similar positions. These forums are now live-streamed and recorded by students at Sultan High School, and all the forums are posted on the LWVSC website.
Mason County does their forums in person in a speed-dating format. Candidates move every five to seven minutes to a new 10-person table, where facilitators ask prepared questions, although some spontaneous questions arise as well. The session is well-attended by local candidates, and if one candidate is unable to attend, they just continue with the program, as there is no “empty-chair” problem.
Kittitas County used recorded interviews of individual candidates last year. This year they are coordinating with the Chamber of Commerce and will return to a more traditional format.
Skagit County is exploring the possibility of moving away from a traditional approach to video interviews of individual candidates this year. This is in response to the problem of getting candidates to participate in traditional forums.
Thurston County’s forums are prerecorded in the studio of Thurston Community Media, and posted on YouTube, TCMedia’s site, and the LWVTC site.
Last fall for the general election, the Spokane League coordinated with local high school teachers and their students to host candidate forums. Students wrote the questions and moderated the debates.
The
Washington State League (LWVWA) is hoping to hold in-person forums this year for all statewide executive offices. The LWVWA is working with local leagues in different areas of the state and with KIRO TV to produce these events.
Where do the questions for candidate forums come from?
Several leagues (like Snohomish) have teams who reach out for questions to League members and community groups – political parties, high school students, educational and civic groups, and media organizations, for example. All leagues work hard to make sure that questions are as unbiased and comprehensive as possible. Most leagues prepare questions in advance, which allows time to edit for content and bias. Some of us give the questions to candidates ahead of time; others wait for the forum to reveal them. (In Snohomish County, we give candidates the questions before the forums, which seems to help them provide more informative answers.) Mason County, which uses the speed dating model for forums, allows some questions to come directly from participants. This requires that each table have a well-trained moderator to make sure that the forum stays professional and productive.
What are the challenges or concerns local leagues have when planning or carrying out forums?
One issue seems to be that several congressional districts span more than one county; and thus leagues in different counties have to work together to coordinate any forums. This coordination can get messy and time-consuming.
In addition, some Leagues are finding that it’s more and more difficult to get candidates to participate in the forums at all. This is one reason several Leagues are now recording candidates as individuals rather than holding traditional forums with all candidates in attendance together.
The MELD (Pod 2) meeting participants who were part of this discussion on candidate forums were: Shelley Kneip, (LWVWA Board Member), Bev Herbst and Wende Sanderson (Skagit), Lynn Busacca (Mason County), Valerie Kelley (Snohomish), Karen Raymond (Kittitas), Beth Pellicciotti (LWVWA Board Representative and Spokane Area), Jean Alliman (Facilitator).