Residents of the 1^st Essex District are invited to “grill” the candidates who wish to replace Steven Baddour as our state senator on Monday, July 23. All the challengers for the Democratic and Republican nominations for the 1^st Essex Senate seat have agreed to participate in a Candidates Forum. Hosted by Methuen Community Television, the forum will be held in the Dupre Center at Presentation of Mary Academy, 209 Lawrence Street, Methuen, MA. This event is FREE and open to the public. Doors open at 6 pm.

The forum will be divided into a section with the Republican Candidates and a section with the Democratic Candidates. Dan Halloran, former Lawrence City Councilor, will serve as the Moderator. Halloran served as a Political Analyst for WCCM, WLLH, and Continental Cablevision between 1989 and 2000.

Panelists will kick things off with some questions on the issues. Democrat Eleni Varitimos, former Aide to Senator Steven Baddour, and Republican Al DiNuccio, who ran for State Representative in 2010, will ask questions along with Karen Hayden, Executive Director of Methuen Community Television.

In addition, the candidates will field questions from the studio audience. All responses will be timed to insure that every candidate has the same chance to speak.

The forum will last approximately 2 ½ hours. It will be LIVE at 6:30pm on Comcast 22 and Verizon 33 cable stations in Methuen. The completed program will be shared with all the community access TV stations in the district and available on the web.

Everyone from the 1^st Essex district is welcome to participate in the forum on Monday, July 23. If unable to attend, please call MCTV at 978-689-8627 or email:  info@methuentv.org with questions or topics to address.