BY JONAS BEALS
Eighteen-year-old Germanna Community College freshman Colin Brehm enjoyed the inaugural Rappahannock Bloggers Forum in Stafford last week.
"I was very pleased and impressed by the candidates who were willing to show up," he said.
Of the 11 supervisor candidates in the four district races in Stafford, eight discussed their platforms at Mountain View High School. Only Doug Filler, Susan Stimpson and Paul Ortiz were absent.
To be fair, those who did show up were taking a bit of a chance on an unproven event fronted by a panel of media wild cards: bloggers.
Brehm, who was one of six panelists, got the idea for the forum this summer as he was traveling home from California. The response from other local bloggers was positive, so he moved forward with the idea. The panel included Matt Kelly, Eric Martin, Shaun Kenny and Tim Watson.
To match the "new media" panel, there was an attempt at inserting some "new media" humor and excitement into the proceedings. Each candidate was given a set of cards with common blogosphere phrases like "pwned!" or "epic fail." The cards could be played by debate opponents to add more response time, keep an opponent from speaking or send their question to another candidate.
"We wanted to do something different," Martin said. "We wanted to put a little gaming into it."
While the idea was unique and ambitious, the candidates didn't fully catch on to their options, instead choosing to answer questions in a manner typical of a televised network debate.
It was a civil evening that allowed candidates freedom to plug their favorite issues and explain their reasons for running.
While there were a few challenging questions, most covered familiar ground where candidates had already staked out well-known positions. For example, Supervisor Paul Milde--the leading critic of the business, professional and occupational license tax--was asked if he would repeal BPOL.
Only a handful of people were in the audience, but they got an opportunity to get to know new candidates like Sean Goss, Laura Sellers and Irene Egan.
"I thought it was productive," Supervisor Joe Brito said, "but I thought some questions were designed for certain candidates. Overall, I'm glad I participated."
Brehm said he learned from the experience and hopes to use those lessons to improve future forums, including the Spotsylvania supervisors forum tomorrow night.
Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036
Email: jbeals@freelancestar.com