Bonneville GOP creates forums for candidates

The Bonneville County GOP is hosting a series of five forums for republican candidates. Thursday, was the first one at the Bonneville County Courthouse. The point of these forums is to allow the public to ask questions and get to know the candidates better.

Thursday’s event was organized by Bonneville County Republican Chairman, Doyle Beck.
The format of this forum is to give each candidate 20 minutes to present to the public, then it is open for the public.

Beck said congressman Mike Simpson got an invitation to tonight’s forum but did not attend.

“Hopefully they’ll send someone in their place to at least help us out with their ideas because there are going to be scheduling conflicts,” said Beck.

“He {Simpson} didn’t make it a priority and we’re certainly here because it’s very important to people in this county to hear what we think about the issues,” said Smith.

Smith started by talking about the tension within the Republican Party in Washington D.C. He called it a civil war and this race with Simpson in Bonneville County as Ground Zero.

Smith got the biggest applause when he promised he would not increase taxes and that he’s in favor of repealing Obamacare.

The press release sent out had Simpson and Smith listed. Local News 8 spoke to Simpson’s campaign manager, she said he never agreed to attend Thursday’s forum. Simpson has only committed to three debates.

The three are:

April 15th at City Club in Idaho Falls.

April 25th in Twin Falls. Both Simpson and Smith will be in attendance

May 11th in Boise. Both Simpson and Smith will be in attendance.

The next forum will be focused on candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. It will be on April 10th.