The 2024 election is just over a month away, with mail-in ballots expected to go out on October 7. As Election Day nears, six candidates are busy campaigning for two open seats on the Folsom City Council, one in Districts 2 and another in District 4. These seats will replace departing councilmembers Rosario Rodriguez, who is moving on to serve as Sacramento County Supervisor, and YK Chalamcherla, who chose not to seek reelection after redistricting would have required him to either relocate or run against a longtime colleague. Chalamcherla is now running for a seat on the Folsom Cordova Unified School District Board.
Last month, Folsom Times partnered with Choose Folsom to present and moderate the 2024 Folsom City Council Candidates Forum, which was live-streamed from Folsom Lake College. This event marked the first local media collaboration of its kind for a city election, offering residents a chance to get to know the candidates in a fast-paced forum, either by watching from home or attending in person. While the forum was a success and future partnerships for such events are likely, there are important local issues in this election that residents want to hear more about—especially how each candidate plans to address them, without the pressure of a time limit.
In prior elections, Folsom Times presented a series called “Coffee Conversations” with candidates, featuring quick and fun interviews with quirky questions on the campaign trail. While the format was engaging, we recognized that this election required more in-depth discussions than that over a cup of joe and the fact that the whole “coffee” theme has become overused and cliche by other media platforms and lacks originality today. Given that this is the first election since Folsom Times, it seemed fitting to offer our readers a deeper look at their candidates with “Candidate Convos,” as Folsom’s leading hyper-local online news source.
“Candidate Convos” is a grassroots Q&A format where each candidate was given the same set of more than two dozen questions on key issues. We did not impose a word limit, allowing the public to see the full range of each candidate’s viewpoints and solutions—or lack thereof. Many of the questions were compiled by Folsom Times staff, with additional topics submitted by the Folsom community after we requested input from readers on their top concerns. All responses were collected by a set deadline and are now being published simultaneously in an effort to curb cases in which candidates can tailor their answers based on those of their opponents when published a different days and times. What you will read is what the candidate provided in direct response to Folsom Times. Want to know more? Each candidate also provides residents how to contact them if you have your own questions for them as well.
In the upcoming election, three candidates will appear on the ballot for each of the two districts with open seats. In District 2, the candidates are Hla Elkhatib, Justin Raithel, and Dustin Silva. In District 4, the candidates are Gul Khan, Barbara Leary, and Jim Ortega. Folsom Times would like to thank each of them for taking the time to participate in these articles, we know there were many questions, but we wanted to include all of the topics submitted by our community at large, which we also thank for engaging with their local news resource.
Below, you’ll find each of the “Candidate Convos” in full, as we kick off our coverage for the final month leading up to Election Day. Each of these Q&A’s can also be found in the politics section of folsomtimes.com.
