District One candidate forum to be held Sept. 19

Thad Kousser, associate professor of political science at UC San Diego, will moderate a debate between District 1 city council candidates — incumbent Sherry Lightner (D) and challenger Ray Ellis (R) — on Wednesday, Sept. 19, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the Sherwood Auditorium at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla.

Presented by the Carmel Valley News, Del Mar Times and La Jolla Light, the debate will begin with 3-minute opening statements from Lightner and Ellis, and then launch into their answers to questions from the community.

The News/Times staff will grill the candidates about traffic congestion, infrastructure and environmental issues, and some social concerns, but

your

thoughts and insights are needed, too.

Mark the date on your calendar and be sure to stop by and listen to the discourse. This election will be close! You may recall that in the June primary Ray Ellis received 14,133 (45.61 percent) of the votes cast and Sherri Lightner got 12,889 (41.59 percent). Each promises to lead and intercede for local residents, but there is a lot of work and a variety of plans on the horizon. Who can best help deliver them?

This newspaper group thanks Professor Kousser for agreeing to moderate the debate. He holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley (2002) and is an expert in state politics, legislatures and legislative elections.

The debate will be videotaped and available on delmartimes.net the next day.

Please send the questions you want answered via email by 9 a.m., Monday, Sept. 16, to executive editor Lorine Wright at editor@rsfreview.com. There will be also be question cards to fill out at the debate.

See you there.