Business council opens forum to public for the first time

By Brandi Makuski

The Portage Co. Business Council is hosting a candidate forum for the circuit court judge race on Feb. 3.

And for the first time, it’s open to the public.

Previous candidate forums have seen fairly high attendance numbers, but had only been open to members of the council- including forums for candidates for mayor, school board and city council who ran the April, 2015 race.

“Well, this is an open election, and we want to be fair to everybody,” said Todd Kuckkahn, executive director of the business council.

Kuckkahn added there is no admission to the forum but there is a limited amount of space.

“So we want everyone to register on the website, because it’s not the biggest room,” he said.

The forum begins at 5 PM at the Portage Co. Business Council, 5501 Vern Holmes Dr., in the Founder’s Room. Anyone interested in attending should click here to register.

The candidates are Assistant District Attorney David Knaapen, Clerk of Courts Trish Baker, Jared Redfield, a local defense attorney, and Judge Robert Shannon, who was appointed to the bench last year after Judge John Finn retired.

The four face each other in a Feb. 16 primary. The two highest vote-getters will move on to the April 5 election.

See next week’s City Times for one-on-one interviews with each of the candidates.