The Paducah-McCracken County NAACP is hosting a candidate forum for local office Thursday, Sept. 4, at the Clemens Fine Arts Center on the campus of West Kentucky Community & Technical College.
Candidates for local offices, including Paducah’s mayoral election and the city’s four commission seats, as well as a special election for McCracken County District Judge, will each get the chance to make their case.
Incumbent Mayor George Bray is being challenged in his reelection bid by Commissioner David Guess is vacating his seat on the city commission to run for mayor.
Incumbent City Commissioners Raynarldo Henderson, Buz Smith and Sandra Wilson are all seeking re-election with challengers for the four seats including Trey Griffin, Dujuan Thomas and Allen Treece.
Gov. Andy Beshear appointed attorney James Mills to fill the vacancy for McCracken County District Judge earlier this year. He’ll face local attorney Jenny Hines for the post as he makes a bid to keep it.
Paducah-McCracken County NAACP Youth Director Amina Watkins said that she’s excited people will get to come and hear from the candidates at the event, which will also feature a Q&A segment.
“We've got some candidates that are running again who hope to be reelected, and then you've got two new ones that we haven't been on the ballot before,” Watkins said. “So we really thought it was important, especially for the two new names, to be introduced to the community and have a chance to speak and tell what they hope to bring to the city commission.”
Watkins said the questions will include a mix of input from the public and from the NAACP chapter.
“We want to make sure that we've solicited questions from the community. Hopefully we can get some of their voices being heard and their questions being answered by those that they have to choose to vote for,” said Watkins. “We've gotten some questions from the public, but then we also had some questions that we wanted to invite our youth to choose a question or a topic that they would like to hear addressed. We just reinstated our youth chapter and we wanted them to have a voice as well.”
The mayoral and judicial candidates will each get five minutes to speak, followed by a panel of individuals from the community who will be asking questions about issues facing the city.
Watkins said she thinks it is the perfect time for a forum because – with an open seat and an opportunity for someone new to engage in public office – people should be interested.
The candidate forum is tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Clemens Fine Arts Center on the campus of West Kentucky Community & Technical College. More information can be found on the Paducah-McCracken County NAACP Facebook page.
