Modesto candidate forum shows that in-person debates still matter | Opinion

Earlier this month, on April 9, at The Century in downtown Modesto, something increasingly rare happened: Three candidates competing for California’s 4th Senate District seat stood in the same room, faced the same audience and answered the same questions.

No curated clips. No campaign consultants managing the message. Just candidates, constituents and a microphone.

That is exactly why the Stanislaus County Taxpayers Association was proud to co-host this debate alongside the Maddy Institute between incumbent Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, Tuolumne County Supervisor Jaron Brandon and farmer Alexandra Duarte. And it is exactly why we intend to do more of it.

We live in an era of political performance. Social media has turned civic discourse into a highlight reel of 10 seconds of outrage and a post designed to provoke rather than inform. Campaigns have learned to master the algorithm. They talk at voters through carefully produced videos and targeted digital ads — rarely talking with them.

The result is a public that is simultaneously overloaded with political content and starved of genuine information about the people who want to represent them.

The residents of Stanislaus County deserve better.

Our district faces real challenges that require real solutions. Water rights are the difference between a working farm and a barren field. Cost of living increases are causing families to choose between gas in the tank or groceries for their families. Medi-Cal funding, infrastructure investment, public safety, the condition of our roads and our schools are not topics to be deployed to spur social media engagement. They are a reality for hundreds of thousands of people in the San Joaquin Valley.

That is why in-person forums matter. When candidates share a stage, they cannot simply ignore a hard question or wait for the news cycle to move on. They must respond — in real time — to their opponents and to the audience sitting in front of them. That accountability is the foundation of informed voting.

Over 150 people in that room on April 9 heard directly about water policy, Medi-Cal cuts, education and the candidates’ competing visions for what Senate District 4 should look like. Voters drove in from all over the vast district because they wanted to see the candidates and hear from them on their positions in person.

The Stanislaus County Taxpayers Association was founded on the principle that a community informed is the best check on government overreach. We monitor budgets, scrutinize spending and work to hold elected officials accountable. But none of that means anything if voters don’t have access to meaningful information before they cast their ballots.

That is why we are committed to expanding these efforts. We are actively working to bring additional candidate forums and civic events to Stanislaus County as the election season progresses.

To the voters of Stanislaus County: Join us in civic engagement. Bring your neighbors, your questions and your skepticism. The best civic engagement tool ever invented is a room full of people hearing directly from their candidates in real time — not from canned statements on social media.

We gave the candidates a room last Thursday and we’ll keep doing it. Democracy doesn’t work in a vacuum, and it doesn’t work in a social media feed. It works when people show up and are informed.

Nick Dokoozlian is the chairman of the Stanislaus County Taxpayer Association.