Questions for Asheville Council candidates

by David Forbes August 11, 2015

It’s election season and we’re asking for your help, readers, in crafting some hard-hitting questions for the 15 people running for Asheville City Council seats

Above: Downtown Asheville by night, photo by Max Cooper

It’s that time, readers. As the October primary approaches, you’ll see more forums (the first is next Wednesday), public debates, campaign events, door-knocking, fundraisers and controversies.

This year 15 candidates are running for three Asheville City Council seats (though the primary will narrow that field to six) partly due to the amount of issues facing the city in a particularly tumultuous era. So expect no lack of back and forth on what direction our city should go.

We have a smart, involved group of readers, so I’m interested in your thoughts on what issues we should ask about and how we should present the information.

An old-school election guide grid? A round-up of candidate responses to key topics? That test from Blade Runner?

Right now, I’m considering a questionnaire with about eight to ten questions, divided about evenly between more open-ended ones (i.e. “what would you do about X issue?”) and ones that will require a Yes/No answer with some explanation (i.e. “how would you vote on X proposal, and why?”)

As for what issues to ask about, there’s a lot going on and I look forward to your collective thoughts on what we should press our potential future elected officials about.

You can shoot us your thoughts via email, or feel free to weigh in publicly on Twitter or Facebook.

I would respectfully ask Council candidates and people directly employed by them to refrain from submitting comments. If you’ve donated or are volunteering for a campaign, please note that front-and-center in your email or comment.

Thanks, readers, and if you want to help support our election coverage, please subscribe.

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