By Khalida Sarwari
A candidates forum for California State Senate District 15 sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Southwest Santa Clara Valley is slated for May 7.
Candidates Jim Beall and Joe Coto will introduce themselves, discuss their qualifications and their reasons for running for the office and address questions from the public.
The event is free and open to the public.
The League of Women Voters of Southwest Santa Clara Valley is sponsoring the forum as one way of informing voters before the June 5 primary elections. The general election takes place on Nov. 6.
Beall is the Democratic state assemblyman who has represented the 24th District since 2006. Due to term limits, he will be ineligible to run for re-election this year, so he is instead running for election to the California State Senate. Beall previously served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the San Jose City Council.
The assemblyman is running against Coto, a former Democratic assemblyman representing the 23rd District from 2004 to 2010. Coto has served as superintendent of the Eastside Union High School District and superintendent and teacher in the Oakland Unified School District. He is also a former Oakland City Council member.
The forum will take place on May 7 from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the Campbell Community Center, 1 W. Campbell Ave., Campbell.
A forum for U.S. Congressional District 18 will be held on May 10. Participating in that forum will be candidates Carol Brouillet, a political activist from Palo Alto and member of the Green Party; Dave Chapman, a software engineer from Mountain View and member of the Republican Party; Anna Eshoo, the Democratic congresswoman for California’s 14th District; and William Parks, an attorney from Sunnyvale and a Democrat. The event will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Los Gatos Town Council chambers, 110 E. Main St., Los Gatos.
A third forum for California State Assembly District 28 is scheduled for May 23. Paul Fong, the Democratic state assemblyman representing the 22nd District who was displaced from his current district by redistricting, is running against independent candidate Chad Walsh. The forum will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the Campbell Community Center.
The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that sponsors debates and distributes information about policy positions.
For more information about the League of Women Voters of Southwest Santa Clara Valley, visitwww.lwv-sw-santaclara-valley.org. For more information about any of the forums, call 408.354.8516.
League of Women Voters is set to host a series of candidate forums
