Dayton mayoral, commission candidates share stage during candidate forum
Sep. 28—Dayton's two mayoral candidates and four city commission candidates shared the spotlight this evening during a candidate forum hosted at Grace United Methodist Church.
The event was hosted by the Dayton Unit NAACP, the Dayton Daily News, the League of Women Voters of the Greater Dayton Area, the Dayton Montgomery County National Pan-Hellenic Council and the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Ohio — Free and Accepted Masons.
The event gave voters a chance to learn more about the people running for mayor and the two open commission seats as election cycle gets into full swing.
The Nov. 2 election is just five weeks out and absentee and early in-person voting begins a week from now, on Tuesday, Oct. 5.
During the two-hour forum, candidates were asked about their plans to confront major challenges, like the glut of vacant and abandoned properties and potential revenue losses from pandemic-related shifts to remote working.
Candidates also were asked about the importance of the city's relationship to the school district and their stances on mask mandates, planned cuts to the ombudsman's office and critical race theory.
In the mayor's race, Dayton City Commissioner Jeffrey Mims Jr. faces retired firefighter Rennes Bowers, who hope to succeed Nan Whaley, who is running for governor and decided not to seek a third term.
Mims, a Democrat who is finishing his second term on the commission, says Dayton is on the right track and he has proven to be a capable leader, and the city needs leadership at this important time.
Bowers, who calls himself a biblical conservative, said he's knocked on thousands of doors and many residents told him they do not trust the city's elected leaders.
He said the city has overlooked and forgotten its neighborhoods, and that he can unite the community and get things done.
In the four-way commission race, incumbent Commissioner Darryl Fairchild and Shenise Turner-Sloss are supporting each other's campaigns.
They face Stacey Benson-Taylor and Scott Sliver, who also are running as a pair. Benson-Taylor and Sliver, like Mims, were both endorsed by the Montgomery County Democratic Party.
Fairchild won a special election to fill the seat that was vacated when Joey Williams stepped down.
Read more about the candidate forum on Tuesday at DaytonDailyNews.com and in print in the Dayton Daily News.
