Hundreds Attend Montgomery Mayoral Forum
13 candidates are vying to become Montgomery’s next mayor. A forum hosted by Neighborhood Associations of Midtown Montgomery and East Montgomery, gave each of them a platform Thursday night.
“In my opinion, it’s way too many, it’s a circus to me and so I want to see the distinction between all of the candidates,” said Kevin King.
Candidates are Butler Browder Jr, Hobson Cox, Ed Crowell, Artur Davis, Ronald Davis, Elton Dean, Victorrus Felder, Shannon Ferrari, J.C Love, Steven Reed, David Sadler, Bibby Simmons, and David Woods.
Each candidate had the opportunity to answer questions submitted by people in the audience.
“I think we’re at a crossroads in Montgomery. I think we’ve seen a lot of progress, seen a lot of good things but we’ve really got a long way to go, especially in the area of education and dealing with crimes and things like that and I want to hear how these guys are going to move Montgomery forward in a good direction,” said Andy Strange.
“You can’t draw big businesses or continue to draw military families without out a strong education system,” said Renee Casillas.
While many people are focused on the future of education and crime, some people want candidates to dig deeper and tackle issues like socioeconomics and economic development.
“Montgomery is full of a bunch of citizens with varying needs and so it’s important to capture the needs of all and not just one group of people,” said LaDonna Brendele.
“Quite naturally I live in west Montgomery. We know certain parts of town is a machine that’s going to oil itself and we know certain parts of town aren’t in more economic distressed areas and so there were a lot of my concerns are,” said King.
People attending, hope that answers to critical issues will help them make the best decision at the polls.
“I want to know which candidates will be the one to unify our city and make a difference,” said Casillas.
While all 13 qualifying candidates participated in Thursday night’s forum, the official list of candidates in the race will be released Friday, July 19th.
Montgomery’s mayoral election will be on Tuesday, August 27th.
