When I arrived in Indianola a little over four years ago, the city was already in the thick of the 2017 municipal election season.
I thought I had until November to get to know the candidates, but I quickly learned about the city’s special charter that places the primary in October, instead of the following month.
I didn’t know a soul in town, and I did my best to get acquainted with all of the candidates that year.
Over the last four years, I have gotten to know a lot of people in this great city of ours.
I’m way more involved in the community than I was four years ago, obviously, but when the Indianola Chamber Main Street board asked me to moderate this past Tuesday night’s mayoral debate, I was a bit nervous.
It was the first time I had moderated a debate, other than late night political discussions in college.
I really didn’t know what to expect.
We prepared questions and worked hard on time management over the past two weeks, but there are some things you can’t prepare for like unruly audience members or even unruly candidates.
Fortunately, Tuesday night’s debate was free of both of those factors.
We had a great audience, even though seating was limited at the Sunflower County Courthouse.
We also had some great candidates who presented themselves professionally and were obviously there to answer questions that have been on the minds of voters for weeks.
The evening started with the opportunity for candidates for the board of aldermen to speak.
We had representatives from three out of the five wards to speak.
Then came time for the main event.
Indianola’s two mayoral candidates, incumbent Steve Rosenthal and his opponent Ken Featherstone, took their places at the podiums.
Like the alderman candidates, the mayoral hopefuls were not there to grandstand or make personal jabs. They were there for business.
For about an hour, the two candidates fielded a number of tough questions on crime, infrastructure and economic development.
And there were plenty of rebuttals in the process.
Things got a little heated at times, as they should during a spirited debate, but no one got out of line.
The audience got into it at times, but no one had to be escorted out, and things quickly calmed down.
From the moderator’s perspective, it was a fun evening, but it was also an evening of service for Indianola Chamber Main Street.
The Chamber has hosted a number of events this year, including this past weekend’s Nola Fall Fest harvest festival, but the mayoral debate may very well be the most important event the organization hosts in 2021.
Without a functional mayoral debate, many voters are left to vote without knowing exactly where candidates stand on the issues that are important to them and their city’s growth.
We hope to host more events like this one in the future.
The entire event was streamed on Indianola Chamber Main Street’s Facebook page and The Enterprise-Tocsin’s Facebook page.
We will share the link on our website as well this week for those who may not have Facebook.
If you did not get a chance to watch it live, go check it out.
When it’s all said and done, you should have a much clearer understanding of where the candidates stand on the issues that were discussed.
