Candidates to Square Off at Forum

The candidates for public office in Barrington will meet face to face on Wednesday evening, Oct. 17, in Town Hall.

The “Candidates Forum” is being hosted by the League of Women Voters of RI with sponsorship by East Bay Newspapers. It will run from 6:30 to 8:30 pm in the Council Chamber.

A “meet and greet” of candidates starts at 6 pm in the Town Hall lobby.

"Candidates can set up tables and hand out materials before the debate," said Joanne DeVoe of the League of Women Voters.

Candidates for Town Council, School Committee and House District 66 (Barrington/East Providence) and House District 67 (Barrington/Warren) will answer questions from the audience handled by a moderator, Scott Pickering, general manager of East Bay Newspapers.

"Questions from the audience must be written on index cards," said DeVoe. "They will be put in a box and screened for appropriateness and to eliminate duplications. Those cards will be combined."

Each candidate can expect to answer from 4 to 6 questions, DeVoe said.

There will be strict time limits for each answer, she said. Candidates can choose from a limited number of "wild cards" if they want more time to answer.

DeVoe said the night will actually consist of "four different forums." Candidates for the District 66 seat will go first because they are also scheduled to debate in East Providence on the same night. Candidates for District 67 will go next, followed by the Town Council and School Committee candidates.

"If you only want to hear the School Committee candidates, for instance," said DeVoe, "you can come for the final 30 minutes of the forum. I expect that people will come and go throughout the evening."

DeVoe said the forum will be recorded for broacast six time at later dates.

The candidates for three seats on the Town Council:

• June Speakman (incumbent - Democrat)
• Kate Weymouth (incumbent - Democrat)
• Ann Strong (Democrat)
• Margaret Kane (Republican)
• Don Nessing (Republican)
• Shirley Applegate-Lockridge (Republican)

The candidates for three seats on the School Committee:

• Patrick Guida (incumbent – Republican)
• Christopher Ramsden (incumbent – Republican)
• Meg Ramsden (Republican)
• Robert Shea (incumbent – Democrat)
• Paula Dominguez (Democrat)

The candidates for House District 67 (Barrington-Warren):

• Jan Malik (incumbent – Democrat)
• Peter Costa Jr. (Republican)

 The candidates for House District 66 (Barrington-East Providence):

• Joy Hearn (incumbent – Democrat)
• Manfred Diel (Republican)
• Eugene Saveory (independent)

You can see profiles of the candidates in the Patch election guide.