Public Forum Informs Voters
I want to begin by thanking everyone who participated in our 2022 County Commissioner Candidate’s Forum for making it such a successful event with just under 100 people in attendance. Members of the League of Women Voters of Yakima County and audience members submitted great questions and all six candidates participated and provided valuable information for the voters of Yakima County.
I wish to thank our moderator, Executive Editor of the Yakima Herald Republic – Greg Halling for moderating the event, Juven Ruiz Garcia for providing interpretation, and the City of Yakima for both providing the venue and recording the forum for broadcast on the Yakima Public Affairs Channel.
This year we had amazing co-sponsors including Asian Pacific Islander Coalition Yakima; Junior League of Yakima; Latino Community Fund; NAACP Yakima Branch; OIC of Washington; OneAmerica Votes; and Poder Latinx Community Fund. Co-sponsors provided interpretation equipment, refreshments for attendees, volunteers, information for voters, financial contributions, and more to make this a successful event.
I also would like to thank both our Voter Services Committee chair Karri Livingston and all the committee members who did a lot of hard work planning this event including Barbara Hersey, Cindy Olivas, Criss Bardill, Karen Pilon, Kitty Jubran, Mary Stephenson, and Natalie McClendon.
Ideally in the future we can hold more candidate forums for other races. We were disappointed that we were not able to hold forums for other races, but League rules state that both parties but be present and we could not get a response from some candidates.
We envision a democracy where every person has the desire, the right, the knowledge, and the confidence to participate in our election process. It will take all of us working together to achieve that.
– Lee Murdock, League President
