How would you like your next City Councilor grilled? Wait, let’s rephrase that, what questions do you think they should be asked – because we’ll be hosting a series of candidate debates, and we worry that we won’t ask everything that should be asked.
Our shared community is a rich weave of diverse neighborhoods and subcultures – there’s multitudes of interests that we couldn’t possibly know about, or at least we hope we don’t, because we want to keep discovering. So, please don’t be shy, let us know if you have any questions for the candidates.
The debates will be recorded and released over the next couple of weeks.
It’s easy to contact us with your questions, you can email us at cityspeak@corvallisadvocate.com, or just reach out on social media.
About this year’s Corvallis City Council races
There are incumbents in four of Corvallis’ nine wards that have declined to seek reelection – which is unusual in our fair burgh. Also, there’s five candidates running together on what they’re calling the Grassroots Slate.
Their endorsements will dissuade some voters, and motivate others – they include the Oregon Chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America, Tenants United Corvallis, Friends of the Corvallis Watershed, OSU Student Workers Organizing Committee, Valley Neighbors for Environmental Quality and Safety, Sunrise Corvallis, and Stop the Sweeps Corvallis.
There are also a few challengers from outside the Grassroots slate – and they too are making this an interesting election cycle, locally speaking.
Finally, with all that going on, there are still three wards finding themselves with only one singular unopposed candidate. So failing the unlikely fluke of a successful write-in campaign upset, we know who will be serving those wards.
In Ward 4, Grassroots slate candidate Ava Olson is unopposed, and she will replace Gabe Shepherd, who is currently running unopposed to replace Xan Augerot on the Benton County Board of Commissioners. In Ward 5, incumbent Charlyn Ellis runs unopposed – some observers see her popularity as increased after her dustup with Corvallis’ highest-ranking officials. And, in Ward 8, Carolyn Mayers is running unopposed to replace incumbent Tracey Yee – Mayers is currently vice-chair of the City’s planning commission, and Yee has endorsed her run.
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