INSIDE

No candidate night

The Point Roberts voters association has decided against holding a candidates night prior to the November election. “It’s a first since I’ve lived here,” said parks board member Shelley Damewood.

Interim voters association president Rich Lloyd, who replaced Bev Griffith in September following her resignation, said they had invited candidates but very few agreed to attend. “All the major candidates weren’t able to come up so we thought there wouldn’t be much interest,” Lloyd said. For example, Lloyd said, congressman Rick Larsen, having already made several visits to the Point in recent months, declined to attend.

Board member Mike Peters said organizers had already started working on scheduling candidates for the event, planned for October 13, when they realized the date would conflict with other election activities. “That night both the presidential debate and the gubernatorial debate were to be broadcast,” Peters said. “There were candidates willing to make the trip but we were worried about a lack of voter turnout.”

Peters said despite the failure of this year’s event the association is committed to continue bringing candidates to Point Roberts voters. ‘We will do it again next year,” he said.