For the second time, a candidate forum featuring 8th Congressional District stronghold Jim Oberstar and Republican challenger Chip Cravaack has had to be rescheduled to accommodate a rapidly growing crowd.
The Oct. 19 event, sponsored by the News Tribune and the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce, is scheduled now for 8 a.m. at the auditorium at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
It originally was scheduled in the Playground Theater at Superior Street and Lake Avenue, a theater with fewer than 100 seats. Within a day, however, more than 100 people had called in to RSVP and a decision was made to move to the Duluth Playhouse, at the Depot, which hosted Northeastern Minnesota's only gubernatorial debate last month. By late last week, more than 100 people and counting were on a waiting list to attend at the 270-seat theater. So the decision was made today to book the DECC Auditorium. Its capacity of 2,318 should prove more than adequate.
That means there no longer will be any reason for anyone to call the chamber to reserve a seat. Seating will be first-come, first-seated that morning. So arrive early. Reservations already made with the chamber are now moot.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Duluthians eager to attend a congressional debate says a lot about what's been happening in Washington; about the popularity of Oberstar, Minnesota's longest-serving representative; and about the grassroots groundswell for Cravaack, a retired pilot who never has held public office.
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The expected large turnout says something else, too: The Northland is engaged and taking seriously the future of our nation. Just as we should be.
