Editor’s Note: A faculty adviser for the event organizers initially told The Dispatch this forum would be debate-style. He has since rescinded that statement.
Columbus mayoral candidates will again square off for a forum Tuesday evening.
MUW College Democrats and the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity will host the event at 6 p.m. in Parkinson Auditorium. Students from both sponsor organizations will moderate the planned 90-minute affair, according to MUW’s Phi Beta Sigma faculty adviser Dwight Doughty.
Incumbent Robert Smith, a Democrat, and Democratic challenger Selvain McQueen previously confirmed they would attend, Doughty said.
However, McQueen told The Dispatch this morning he may bow out of the debate because he is dealing with a family member’s illness.
Smith said he will be there regardless.
“I look forward to participating,” he told The Dispatch this morning.
The other two candidates in the race, Democrat Carl Lee and independent Montrell Coburn, have not confirmed their plans to attend. Doughty said he and student organizers had attempted to reach them, by phone and email, but had not received replies.
Lee told The Dispatch this morning he knew nothing about the forum and isn’t sure he can attend. Coburn could not be reached for comment.
McQueen, a former Columbus police chief, walked out of a candidate forum during his introduction on Thursday evening at Sim Scott Park, one he said he believed was a debate. In his two-minute introduction, he launched into a critique of Smith’s leadership as mayor until event organizers compelled him to stop.
“I was very nice and polite,” McQueen told The Dispatch. “I was told I couldn’t talk, so there was no sense in hanging around. So I politely got up and excused myself.”
Smith called McQueen’s actions “childish” and “unprofessional.”
“He got out like a little child and then he turned and said, ‘I’ll see you on the 25th,'” Smith recalled of McQueen’s departure on Thursday.
Doughty said despite the animosity between the two candidates, he wasn’t concerned about Tuesday’s forum.
“We have had both candidates on our campus for prior events, and they both are respectful men,” he said.
Another criticism McQueen levied toward last Thursday’s forum was the moderator — community outreach coordinator Glenda Buckhalter — is a city employee who works directly under the mayor’s purview.
Doughty, while not moderating Tuesday’s forum, is the nephew-in-law of Smith’s administrative assistant, Joyce Doughty. He told The Dispatch, however, Joyce has not been involved in the planning process for the event.
Coming Sunday
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