Oak Highlands Brewery will host the D10 Mayoral Forum Wednesday night

The nine candidates running to replace Mike Rawlings as mayor of Dallas knew the pace of the campaign would be grinding, but they may not have expected daily meet-and-greets and almost-nightly debates.

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This Wednesday, April 3, 100 Women of Lake Highlands, Exchange Club of Lake Highlands, Hamilton Park Next Generation Leaders and All in D10 will host a mayoral candidate forum. Here are five ways this event will be different from the 40 other forums candidates will attend before Election Day May 4.

There will be alcohol.

Wednesday’s forum will be hosted by Oak Highlands Brewery, and the suds will be flowing. OHB will offer light bites and beer for purchase, and that will take the edge off when every candidate, in turn, says “we need to fix potholes.”

Our community will be the focus.

District 10 Lake Highlands and Hamilton Park organizations are sponsoring the forum, so issues critical to our little slice of heaven will be emphasized.

I will be the moderator.

The hosts have invited me, Carol Toler, and Asheya Warren, founder and principal of Praxis marketing and communications firm, to referee moderate the forum. We. Cannot. Wait.

We’ve added a couple of “lightning rounds.”

Some questions require long-form answers to clarify how candidates would solve the city’s complicated issues, but in some cases, one sentence answers will do the trick.

Hopefuls can disagree by holding up a red paddle.

We’ll issue paddle signs to candidates – red on one side, green on the other. If they disagree with another participant’s answer, they can hold up the red side. If they agree, they can show green. During the lightning round, simple questions may be answered “yes” with green and “no” with red.

Lynn McBee, Jason Villalba, Scott Griggs, Mike Ablon, Miguel Solis, Regina Montoya and Albert Black (in ballot order) are planning to attend. Admission is free, and you may submit questions for the candidates via the event Facebook page here. The meet-and-greet is at 6:45 p.m. and the forum starts promptly at 7. Oak Highlands Brewery is at 10484 Brockwood, off Royal/Miller, north of LBJ.

See you there!

Candidates who disagree with another hopeful’s answer may hold up the red side of their paddle sign and hold up the green side if they agree.