The Lakeland College History Club, Sheboygan North High School, and the Sheboygan Press teamed up to orchestrate a debate between all eight of the upcoming candidates for mayor of Sheboygan on Jan. 12.
Assistant Professor of History Rick Dodgson was the moderator of the event and claimed that he believed the event was, “very successful,” and, “good PR (public relations) for the school.” Around 450 people were in attendance for the debate, despite less than desirable weather conditions that kept many people snowed in.
Luckily, the debate was streamed in its entirety over the Internet, thanks to the Sheboygan Press, which posted the debate video on the Elections page of their website. A link to the debate coverage can also be found on the Lakeland College website home page. This gave people who may have missed the debate the ability to stay informed and further analyze the statements that were made by the candidates.
For the debate, the History Club thought of three different questions to be proposed to the potential candidates. they were asked by Jermaine Nicholas, Brittany Kopp, and Pablo Alvarez, three of the History Club’s members who were in attendance for the debate. Those three questions were:
“The City of Sheboygan recently hired a city administrator to oversee the day-to-day administrative and operational management of the city. In light of these changes, how would you now define the role of the mayor of Sheboygan?”
“As mayor, how would you help develop the South Pier District of Sheboygan?”
“What do you consider the greatest challenge facing the city right now, and what is your long-term vision for Sheboygan?”
Besides answering the three questions, each candidate was asked to prepare a 50 word biography to be read at the beginning of the debate by Dodgson. Two minutes were allotted to each candidate for their closing arguments. To add another quirk to the format, each candidate was also given one red “challenge” flag which gave candidates the opportunity to challenge another candidate’s statement, and then an opportunity for the challenged candidate to defend his or her position.
All of this occurred just five days before the election was held. When asked if he believed the debate had any effect on the outcome of the election, Dodgson said, “[It] definitely had some impact on voting patterns.” The example Dodgson cited was Eric Nieve. He had very little political experience and ran a bare bones campaign, but after a strong performance at the debate was still able to acquire 289 votes.
Despite this, Dodgson didn’t believe the debate affected the final outcome of the election. He said voters ultimately turned back to traditional voting patterns, electing the two more experienced candidates.
Bob Ryan took in the largest number of votes, but not enough to completely seal his current mayoral position. Instead, he will have to face the runner-up, Terry Van Akkeren, in a runoff election to decide who will be the next mayor of Sheboygan. That election will be held on Feb. 21.
Dodgson also confirmed that there will definitely be a debate between Ryan and Van Akkeren. and has tentatively confirmed that it will be held on Feb. 9 at the Weill Center in Sheboygan. He hopes the upcoming debate will be much more of a conversation, and will also be open to questions from the audience.
Newly appointed President of the History Club, Matthew Bauknecht, said, “The History Club is really trying to get our name out there for these kinds of events.” He is hopeful that, by getting their name out there, it will open doors to events involving a higher level of politics such as debates between Governor Walker and his challengers, though no steps have yet been taken to make this happen.
