City Council Election Forums Now Show Voters Differences in Candidates’ Views

As ASMSU prepares to host live debates of East Lansing City Council candidates on Oct. 11, the Lansing Area League of Women Voters has just released the recordings of its East Lansing City Council candidate forums that were held yesterday, Sept. 29.

Definitive differences in some candidates’ positions are emerging in these forums, making the forums potentially very useful for voters who are still deciding who to support.

The League held two virtual forums: one for the five candidates running for the two 4-year positions on Council and another for the two candidates competing for the lone 2-year seat. The forums, introduced by League President Donna Mullins, were recorded without audiences.

Both forums have just become available on the Lansing Area League of Women Voters’ YouTube channel. You can see the recording of the four-year-seats’ forum here and the recording of the two-year-seat forum here.

The questions, posed to the candidates by League Vice President Dorothy Engelman, were developed using East Lansing Info (ELi) reader responses to our election survey. League members called the help provided by ELi’s survey respondents “invaluable” to their forum preparation.

Questions covered East Lansing housing and the overlay districts, police funding, zoning and development, downtown culture and business, green space preservation, programming for senior citizens, taxes, resident retention, and much more.

Results of ELi’s survey have also been shared with the ASMSU candidate debates organizers. (ASMSU is the undergraduate student government of MSU.)

ASMSU will hold that organization’s live candidate debates on Monday, Oct. 11, from 7 to 9 p.m. in room 115 of the International Center on campus (427 N. Shaw Ln.). The candidates for the 2-year seat will take the floor first from 7 to 7:45 p.m., followed by the candidates for the 4-year seats from 7:50 to 9 p.m.

As Election Day draws near, ELi will continue to provide you with information about the candidates’ views, including through their written responses to our readers’ questions.

Make sure to check out ELi’s Voter Guide to the 2021 East Lansing City Council Election for lots more information.

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