Since wonderful Covid locked us down for a while before excessive safety measures were put in place, The Tribune debates have been an event we look forward to as it allows hopeful candidates to actually debate and exchange ideas without being coached or given a list of questions well ahead of time…we just issue the rules; the questions are not known until the moment each one is asked.
So with all that being said in a run-on sentence, I am happy to announce the series is back this year as Cullman County Schools superintendent hopeful Morris Williams will take the floor with incumbent superintendent Dr. Shane Barnette.
Both candidates will be asked a series of alternating questions in order to give each a chance to answer first on an equal number of questions. We have a list of 10 total rules – a few of which will be mentioned below.
While we have the debate platform set for the county superintendent race debate, the Cullman County circuit judge race debate is a bit lopsided at the moment as we have only have one candidate committed to attend.
Local attorney Melvin Hasting replied and agreed to the terms of the debate. Emily Niezer Johnston has yet to reply to a series of texts and emails invited her to participate.
While not every rule will be listed out in detail to the general public close to a month in advance, I will say that we will not allow anyone to accompany the candidates; they will not be allowed to have electronic devices of any kind and we do not allow any prepared statements, though we are considering allowing opening statements – but nothing can be written down or typed out.
The purpose of these debates is to give you, the voter, the opportunity to submit questions you’d like to have the candidates answer. Submit questions to news@cullmantribune.com and be sure to include your name and a contact number to verify the question is genuine.
Once we have all the questions in before 5 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2024, the process will begin to find the most common-themed questions, as those will take precedence.
There will also be questions formulated by a small group at The Tribune included.
These debates are not a “gotcha moment” or a platform to embarrass or ridicule. It’s a place for those seeking your vote to come together and answer questions while agreeing or disagreeing on the proper formula.
Personally, I believe if you’re afraid to answer questions from the public and the news source in the county then should you really be running for public office?
There’s no malice in this debate. It’s a simple question and answer forum with a peaceful moderator in W.C. Mann (aka Craig) who is simply trying to find out where each candidate stands on certain issues they’ll face.
The debates will be filmed at our office on the last weekend in February; however, each will air the week leading into the election on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.
These will be filmed with the intro and outro included with no post-production work done other than rendering the video. No edits of any kind will be made to the videos.
Anyway, that’s long enough. Again, all are invited and we really do hope we hear from our last candidate!
Happy debating and happy voting March 5, 2024!
