Columbus candidates taking part in forum Thursday night

April 3, 2019 John Clark

You will have a chance to meet the candidates for City Council and mayor tomorrow at a forum being organized by the Columbus Young Professionals.

Chrissy Bailey is a member of the Columbus Young Professionals and an organizer for the event.

Bailey said that this is the first candidate forum organized by the group.

Organizer Rachel Yancer, says that the questions at the forum will reflect the younger residents’ concerns.

She said that the group solicited questions on its Facebook page and those should delve into different areas than the traditional candidate forum.

There will also be a question chosen by the students at Foundation for Youth, she said.

Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps will also be on hand to help if you need to register to vote in the election. The deadline to register is Monday and early voting starts Tuesday at the voter registration office in the county courthouse.

Most of the candidates for office have confirmed that they will participate tomorrow night, Yancer and Bailey said.

Although there are no contested races on the Democratic side for next month’s primary, Columbus Republican voters will have several contested races in mayor including mayor and three seats on the City Council. Mayor Jim Lienhoop is being challenged by Glenn Petri for the nomination, while incumbent Dascal Bunch is running against Chris Rutan in the District 1 race for City Council. The newest council member Dave Bush, is facing Russ Poling in the District 3 Republican race, and there is a three-way race for the Republican at-large nominations, with incumbent Laurie Booher, facing Josh Burnett and John Counceller.

In November, there will be a full slate of Democratic and Republican City Council races although no Democrats filed to run for mayor or clerk-treasurer.

The CYP forum starts at 5:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon at the Fairfield Inn & Suites off of Jonathan Moore Pike. If you can’t make it to the event, you can listen to the candidate forum live on News Talk 1010 WCSI and 98.1 FM.