Debates offer opportunity for informed voting

The clock is ticking and time is running short in the campaign season for state-level office. As is often the case just before Election Day, rhetoric gets racheted up and some candidates go aggressively on the offensive. Sadly, too often, this manifests itself in last-minute attack ads and other forms of negativity designed to malign an opponent.

We'd like to think that those currently vying for political office will keep their campaigns on the high road down the home stretch. The remaining days before voting takes place on Nov. 7 will tell the final story.

In the meantime, voters looking for some last-minute information about those who seek to represent them in the Legislature have a few remaining opportunities, including a staple of the campaign season, KAKM's &#8220Running” series.

The public television program has gained a following over the years for bringing all candidates to the table for questioning and a short debate. Monday night, Valley candidates are slated to appear.

At 7 p.m., House District 13 candidates Jim Wardman and Rep. Carl Gatto will share the debate table with House District 14 candidates Katie Hurley and Rep. Vic Kohring and House District 15 candidates Myrl Thompson and Rep. Mark Neuman.

That will be followed at 7:30 p.m. by another roundtable debate featuring Senate District H candidates Jay Cross and Sen. Charlie Huggins and House District 16 candidates Pat Chesbro and Rep. Bill Stoltze.

KAKM can be found locally on channel 7.

The &#8220Running” debates will be followed Tuesday morning by another round of radio interviews on Talkeetna station KTNA's &#8220Susitna Valley Voice” series. News director Amanda Stossel will host Cross and Huggins for about an hour, from 11:08 a.m. to noon. The program will include a call-in session, so voters can address the candidates themselves.

The number is 733-1200, but calls are not taken for the final five minutes. KTNA can be found at 88.9 on the FM dial. Anyone out of the station's broadcasting range, or who can't tune in for the live broadcast, will find an audio file of the program posted at the station's Web site, ktna.org, Tuesday afternoon.

An audio file of House District 15 candidate Myrl Thompson's Oct. 17 appearance also appears there. Thompson's opponent, Rep. Mark Neuman, declined to participate.

Audio files of one-hour interviews with Cross and Palmer-area candidates Jim Wardman (House District 13) and Pat Chesbro (House District 16) can also be found at the Radio Free Palmer Web site, www.radiofreepalmer.org. Their opponents - Huggins, Rep. Carl Gatto, and Rep. Bill Stoltze, respectively - declined to participate.

Also at the Radio Free Palmer Web site, interested voters will find one-hour interviews with the three major candidates for governor - Sarah Palin, Tony Knowles and Andrew Halcro - as well as a recording of a recent Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce governor candidate forum.

Finally, Nov. 1 is the date for another forum featuring legislative candidates. That one is at Mat-Su College at 4:30 p.m. All local House and Senate candidates have been invited.

Q&As with local candidates will also continue to appear in these pages, as will campaign news stories as circumstances warrant. It all adds up to opportunity for voters to be as informed as they can before Nov. 7. We urge everyone to take advantage.