It looked more like a cardboard convention than a political forum. Cars were lined with posters supporting their candidate of choice, and more signs lined the church lobby.
Candidates for county and state elections held an open forum at Westside Baptist Church on Tuesday evening.
Those participating in discussions were running for the Alachua County School Board, Sheriff, County Commission, the State House of Representatives and Congress.
The County Commission segment featured John Martin from District 1, Robert Hutchinson and Jean Calderwood from District 3, and Dean Cheshire, Chuck Chestnut and K. Siva Prasad from District 5. Mike Byerly, who is running against Martin in District 1, missed the forum.
Calderwood and Cheshire spent some of their time criticizing actions taken by their opponents for previous government work.
“His record is not one of making difficult decisions,” Cheshire said of Chestnut. “He’s never voted on a budget during his time in Tallahassee.”
Andrew Morey and Keith Perry said they hope to represent District 21 in the State Legislature. While Perry said his main priority was to stimulate the state’s economy and to create jobs, Morey argued that job creation would happen organically if the state strategically invested in public education.
“We’ve seen that the legislature has voted to cut UF’s budget the past two years,” Morey said. “But they opened Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, which we don’t really need.”
Democrat J.R. Gaillot and Republican Ted Yoho, who are both running for U.S. Congress in the third district, have different views on almost all facets of government.
The two discussed the debt ceiling, tax code reforms, stimulating job growth and the Affordable Healthcare Act, also known as Obamacare.
On almost every issue, the candidates completely disagreed, especially on Obamacare.
“We need to defund and bury it,” Yoho said about the law.
“I fully support it,” Gaillot replied.
Contact Shelby Webb at swebb@alligator.org.
