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Crockett Chamber Hosts Political Forum

City Council, School Board Candidates Address Constituents

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

CROCKETT – The Crockett Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a political candidate forum on Thursday evening, April 28 at the Crockett Civic Center.  

On hand for the forum were challengers/incumbents for Crockett City Council Precinct Five along with challengers/incumbents for the Crockett ISD Board of Trustees Districts One and Six.

The forum began just after 6 pm with CoC Executive Director Liza Clark serving as the moderator.

Clark began the forum by thanking all of the candidates for the May 7 election for attending the Thursday evening and informed those in attendance, the Chamber would be hosting another political forum for those candidates on the November ballot.

She also recognized the CoC Board members along with city officials and Crockett ISD administrators.

“This is how this going to work,” Clark said. “This is a very informal ‘Meet the Candidates’ session. Each candidate who is on the ballot for the May 7 election will get five minutes to discuss what ever they want to discuss with you. This is not a Q&A. It does not require audience participation. It is just a time for them to tell you either about themselves, issues or platforms and other things like that.”

She added once all the candidates had been allowed a chance to speak, they would be released to tables scattered throughout the civic center’s main hall, where “… you can discuss and have a Q&A for as long as you would like.”

The first candidate to speak was incumbent city council member for Precinct Five and Mayor Pro Tem of the Crockett City Council, Mike Marsh.

Marsh was followed by challenger Lynda Warfield.

Once the city council candidates concluded, those running for a seat on the Crockett ISD Board of Trustees addressed those in attendance.

First up, the candidates for District One gave their presentations. Incumbent Ansel Bradshaw spoke first. He was followed by challengers Gary Fitch and Jessica James.

Following the District One candidates, the two candidates for District Six spoke. The two candidates are Zenita Hamilton and TieAsia Tucker.

At the conclusion of the candidate oratories, Clark returned to the podium and reminded voters of the two propositions on the May 7 ballot.

According to the Texas Secretary of State website, proposition one proposes “… a constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for the reduction of the amount of a limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed for general elementary and secondary public school purposes on the residence homestead of a person who is elderly or disabled to reflect any statutory reduction from the preceding tax year in the maximum compressed rate of the maintenance and operations taxes imposed for those purposes on the homestead.”

Proposition two proposes “… a constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for public school purposes.”

Following the reading of the propositions, Clark released the candidates to their assigned tables for individual questions and answers from the voters.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].  

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