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Thursday saw what, most likely, will be the last major candidate event for Hancock and Brooke counties before the election on Nov. 5.
There may still be a couple chances for statewide candidates to make an appearance in our area in the coming weeks, but as far as mass gatherings where residents can hear from multiple candidates at one time, the forum held Thursday by the Hancock County Republican Committee will probably be it.
These events always have a different feel, depending on the candidates in focus, the organizers and the format.
In late August, the local Democratic committees hosted an event limited to their party's candidates. A few weeks ago, the Weirton Chamber held a forum for Weirton's mayoral candidates. Thursday's opened the door for candidates from both parties and several races.
Probably the only big issue was the lack of time for those seeking the seven Weirton Council seats…and, to be honest, it's understandable why it was done the way it was.
Council candidates were provided just 90 seconds to introduce themselves and talk about their platforms.
Ninety seconds is fine to answer a single question, but to express the message of an entire campaign, not so much.
As I said, it was an understandable limitation in this case. There are seven seats on Weirton Council - one representing each ward. Two of those wards have only one candidate - Ralph Cunningham seeking the Ward 2 seat and Chris Jonczak seeking Ward 7.
Of the remaining wards, there are three running for Ward 1 incumbent Tim Connell, Rod Summers and Jonathan Curenton; Ward 3 has Jesse Keeder, Ronnie Jones and Joe DiBartolomeo on the ballot; Ward 4 has a faceoff between Kyle Wilson and Rick Stead; Ward 5 has a four-way contest between George Charnie Jr., Jaime Halligan, Karen Harris and Brittany Holloway; and Ward 6 has Enzo Fracasso, Bob Wyatt, Fritz Frohnapfel, and Anthony Rocchio.
Of those 18 candidates, 15 were in attendance Thursday, and another sent a surrogate. If they had been given the same time as the remaining races, we probably wouldn't have gotten out of there until 2 a.m. Friday. Some time was given for questions from the audience at the end of the event, so that could have helped depending on who attendees were interested in hearing from.
To me, that just reinforces my argument that Weirton's council seats should have staggered elections. Twenty-one years ago, the city ended up with an election where only one incumbent remained from the previous council. This year, that could repeat as only three incumbents are running for council and two of those have opposition. At the least, maybe in four years there will be groups willing to organize individual ward council forums. That way, each has more time to talk their issues.
All four mayoral candidates - Harold Miller, Flora Perrone, Dean Harris and George Village - attended Thursday's event, each having an opportunity to answer a few questions from the moderator.
Both of the Hancock County Sheriff candidates - incumbent Scott Gittings and challenger Dezso Polgar - were there, and each of the candidates in our two local contested House of Delegates races were there. District 2 has a faceoff between incumbent Mark Zatezalo and challenger Olivia Dowler, both from Weirton, while District 3 sees incumbent Jimmy Willis from Bethany against challenger David Cantrell from Wheeling.
There's a lot that goes into these events, and I, for one, am appreciative of each of them as they give an opportunity to hear directly from those candidates who participate.
They can be long nights, but it's always worth attending to get a better idea of candidates' thoughts as they seek our votes.
(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @ChowellWDT)