University students will get the opportunity to meet the four candidates running for mayor of Eugene while attending a debate among the four this afternoon in the Ben Linder Room of the EMU. The debate will begin at 4:30 p.m.
While the big-name presidential candidates such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, as well as her husband Bill Clinton, have been gathering flocks of supporters recently around the University, today’s debate will see the smaller-scale local officials trying to win the student vote.
The debate was organized by the Oregon Student Association in hopes of educating students on community issues and introducing them to the city’s future policy maker who will have a hand in shaping those issues.
“We just want students to have the opportunity to meet the next mayor of Eugene before they are in office,” said Tom Hojem, the OSA campus organizer. “Students could definitely educate themselves on some important issues facing the community.”
Mayor Kitty Piercy is no stranger to the campus, as she has held open meetings with students to discuss issues facing them, and she used the University as a location to kick off her various environmental programs.
Piercy’s campaign manager, Marilyn Milan, said the incumbent will be talking about her support for tenants’ rights and her previous work with the University. She will possibly discuss the potential siting of the McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in the University’s Riverfront Research Park.
Former mayor Jim Torrey plans to take a different approach to the debate because of the importance he feels the student vote will play.
“Students will probably be the deciding vote in this election,” Torrey said. “For all intensive purposes, this primary election will define who wins the mayor (position). One of us will definitely get more than 50 percent of the vote.”
Torrey referred to the Eugene mayoral election rules that state if any one candidate wins at least 51 percent of the vote, that candidate moves forward to the November ballot unopposed. If no one wins a majority, then the top two vote-getters move on to the November election.
Torrey said he plans on talking more as an educator than he plans on speaking about his platform issues. He wants students to realize the importance of all the races put before the voters on this ballot, such as the federal and state legislative races and the secretary of state race.