Alamogordo NM
10-02-2023 4:38am

League of Women’s Voters Hosted Tularosa Candidate Forum

Otero New Mexico Branch League of Women’s Voters hosted Tularosa Candidates Forum

The League of Women’s Voters of Southetn New Mexico Otero County Branch hosted its first local forum this past weekend in Tularosa. Jo Galván Nash and Kathe Kanim are co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of Southern New Mexcio were present at the forum. Jo was moderator, and Kathe was part of the moderating panel.

As an extra precaution the Tularosa police Department provided a uniformed officer for event security, which ensured a tame and safe environment

The precaution was taken after a recent incident, of disorderly behavior, by the chairperson of local defunct suspended chapter, Democrat Party  of Otero County and her sidekick, the suspended SCC member and candidate committee chair, were in Cloudcroft disrupting a mayoral candidate meet and greet meeting which ended with members of the public walking out in disgust with the two individuals interfering in a local event.

The League of Women’s Voters event in Tularosa was professional, well attended, nonpartisan, positive and demonstrated civility in political dialogue.

All the candidates for the offices of Trustee, Mayor and Municipal judge were present: 

Trustee: Antonia "Monica" Voorbach-Moheit, Ali Husain Karim Kassam, Mark Garwood, Manuel Brusuelas, Stephanie DuBois

Mayor: John Green, Deborah Cooksey, Margaret Trujillo (Incumbent)

Municipal Judge: Christopher Rupp, Aviana Garcia, Larry Berry

The forum was broken into three segments, so that at any one time candidates for only one race were participating.

Trustees - 5 candidates

Mayor - 3 candidates

Municipal Judge - 3 candidates.

The League of Women Voters of Southern New Mexico moderator Jo Galvan Nash confidently held the forum to the pre-defined schedule. It was a 90-minute forum that moved along smartly and kept the audience's attention.

Questions were collected, in writing, from the audience throughout the course of the forum and used by the moderator.

Each candidate had 1 minute to make an opening statement, and had 2 minutes to make a closing statement.

As various questions were asked, different candidates were given the opportunity to answer first.

At least two Tularosa locals remarked to that the audience turnout was very good.

Even Jo Galvan Nash and Katherine Kanim, LWVSNM  from Las Cruces, were impressed with the turnout and said that they could not have had such a strong audience showing in Las Cruces. Great job Tularosa voters in seeking information.

All candidates remained for the entire forum. It was great to see the audience stick around and talk with the candidates after the forum was brought to a close.

The event was also live-streamed  on Facebook which increased reach and viewership. 

The League of Womens Voters is hopeful they will get a similar good turnout Saturday October 7th for the Tularosa School Board candidate forum start time 5:30 pm . 

A reminder the next candidate forum is in Alamogordo, Tuesday October 3rd, for the Alamogordo school board candidates at Otero Art Space,  1118 Indiana Avenue starting at 5:30 pm.

Congratulations and thanks to the Tularosa candidates, League of Women Voters of Southern New Mexico, the many volunteers, Tularosa schools for providing the venue, and the Tularosa police department for providing site security to make this important event possible. An informed public with nonpartisan civil and professional engagement is important for the political process.

At AlamogordoTownNews.com and KALHRadio.org, we celebrate the League of Women’s Voters to stepping up to host these important forums to help educate and inform Otero County voters. 

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