MTSU’s American Democracy Project will play a significant role in tonight’s city candidates’ forum on Murfreesboro CityTV.

Murfreesboro CityTV will televise the City Mayor, City Council, and City School Board Candidate Forums presented by the League of Women Voters of Murfreesboro/Rutherford County beginning at 5:30 p.m. inside City Hall. 

According to a city news release, the League of Women Voters has chosen MTSU history graduate student Amanda Barry to moderate the City School Board forum at 5:30 p.m.; Dr. Martha Norkunas, MTSU history professor, will conduct the City Council forum at 6:30 p.m.; and MTSU professor Dr. Laura Clark from the College of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership will moderate the mayoral forum at 7:45 p.m.

All moderators are from MTSU’s American Democracy Project with coordination/selection assistance provided by Dr. Mary Evins, associate professor of history and coordinator of the American Democracy Project at MTSU.

There are seven candidates running for three seats on the City School Board. They are Wesley Ballard, Kevin N. Fisher, Geoffrey Robert Burns Herring, Phil King, Novonda Lilly and incumbents Nancy Rainier and Collier Smith.

There are eight candidates running for three seats on the City Council. They are Axl David, incumbent Madelyn Scales Harris, Candy Roberts Joyce, Rick LaLance, Brian Patterson, Jeff Rainwater, Stephen A. Shirley and incumbent Doug Young.

The two mayoral candidates are current council members Shane McFarland and Ron Washington.

LWV developed a list of questions for the forums and the moderators will pick the questions to ask from the list provided. Answers will be timed and none of the questions have been provided to the candidates ahead of time.

The forums will take place in the Council Chambers of City Hall located at 111 W. Vine St.

The event will be covered live on Murfreesboro CityTV located on Comcast Xfinity channel 3 and AT&T Uverse channel 99 and webstreamed at www.murfreesborotn.gov/citytv.

To find out when the forums will replay, please visit www.murfreesborotn.gov/citytvschedule. To watch the forums on demand, please visit www.murfreesborotn.gov/onlinevideos.

Early voting is March 26–April 10 and Election Day is April 15. The last day to register to vote is March 17.

For more information about the City Election, please visit www.rutherfordcountytn.gov/election.

— Jimmy Hart (jimmy.hart@mtsu.edu)