Irvine Candidate Forum Attendance Record
The November 5th election day is fast approaching for Irvine City Council and Mayoral candidates. Their campaigns are in the final stretch of door knocking, mailing, post carding, social media posting, fundraising, and getting out the vote. Some ballots have returned, but most eligible voters have yet to vote. Campaigning, even in Irvine’s first District Election, is long and arduous. As Irvine Watchdog earlier noted, districting has not stopped big money flowing into campaign coffers. The goal for each candidate is to reach their constituents and deliver a message that resonates. One important way to do this is by participating in good old fashioned live candidate forums. This year, Irvine had five major candidate forums hosted by a myriad of organizations and schools, including the Irvine Watchdog Candidate Forum. Let’s see who showed up and took on tough questions for public consumption.
Irvine City Council Candidates
District 1 candidates Jackie Kan, Jeff Kitchen, and Melinda Liu attended 4 of 5 forums, while John Park missed nearly all the forums except one in early September. District 2 candidates Jeff Starke and Gang Chen have a perfect 5 of 5 attendance record, while Parrisa Yazdani only attended one, and Mohamed Kothermydeen was absent in all forums. District 3 candidate Jing Sun maintained perfect attendance and Tom Chomyn only missed one. However, James Mai only attended one. In District 4, Ayn Craciun has a perfect 5 of 5 attendance, while Mike Carroll only attended one forum.
Irvine Candidates for Mayor
For our Mayoral candidates, Larry Agran, Lee Sun and Ron Scolesdang had perfect attendance. Akshat Bhatia missed the most forums at three and the remainder fell somewhere in between.
Only time will tell if engaging with the public and attending candidate forums pays off. The public certainly benefits from hearing their candidates talk about policy. Best of luck to all the candidates as they prepare to cross the finish line.
