Are Nashville’s Mayoral Candidates Getting Forum Fatigue?

Forum fatigue may be setting in for Nashville’s candidates for mayor. Last week there were five such events, and even two in one day.

By now, candidates for mayor are familiar with the setup: they line up seated at a table, elbow-to-elbow, taking turns answering questions from groups ranging from neighborhood chambers of commerce to LGBT interest groups. They’ve done so many forums like this that Charles Robert Bone lost count early.

“We’ve now been through — somebody here will give us the count — but this is our 23
^rd
or 24
^th
forum like this,” Bone said on stage in May. Now the figure is approaching 50.

Though that rising total may seem like a lot, it’s actually not that out of the ordinary in comparison to mayoral campaigns in other cities. For instance, Philadelphia’s current mayor’s race has had more than 70 forums.

Political scientists say the conversations do level the playing field for those with less money to advertise on TV. Candidate Jeremy Kane agrees.

“I think we should have more,” the charter school founder says. “These forums are a great way for me and the other candidates to meet the voters [and] have them ask us questions directly.”

While it’s unclear whether voters are getting to know the candidates better at the forums, what’s certain is that candidates are getting to know each other very well. They have even joked that they can finish each other’s sentences and complimented each other’s ideas — leading some critics to say they need to go more negative at these public events to differentiate themselves.