E+TV6, The Post partnering for mayoral forum

The Post is partnering with E+TV6 to bring a County Mayoral Forum to the voters.

The pair of media outlets are working together with the candidates for Madison County Mayor to bring information from the candidates to the voters in a studio setting that will be broadcast live on E+TV6 and its social media pages.

The Post’s managing editor, Brandon Shields, and Jackson Energy Authority’s communications chief Steve Bowers will conduct a conversation with the candidates to allow them to get their platforms and stances on various local issues before the people to give them a chance to decide who to vote on.

The three candidates in the Republican primary - incumbent A.J. Massey, Sam Bryant and Andy Hall - will be involved in the forum, which will last an hour. 

There are plans to have a second forum in the summer involving the Republican nominee and independent candidate Fren’Cherry Miller before the general election.

“I’m really excited about this,” Shields said. “We’re changing up the format for this forum a little bit to allow for more dialogue among the candidates about the issues.

“We’ll set aside five to 10 minutes for each issue to be discussed, and we’ll step back and let the candidates discuss with very little chance of any of us moderators getting involved unless someone is talking too long or it’s time to move on to the next topic.”

Bowers, who himself is a legendary figure in Jackson media after more than 40 years covering stories in the area, said E+TV6 is glad to be the venue to bring this forum to the people.

The forum will happen at 10 a.m. on April 1, and it will air live at that time. It will also be re-broadcast multiple times over the next couple weeks as early voting is set to start on April 15 through April 30 before the primary election on May 5.