As I watched the presidential candidate debate Thursday night, my mind took me back to late March, 2014.  Fishers was about to elect the new city’s first mayor.  There were six people running in the Republican primary and it didn’t seem likely a Democrat would step forward to run (no Democrat did).

So, this primary election was going to select our first mayor.  There had already been two debates, or “joint appearances” as many would describe them.  The Fishers Chamber of Commerce and the local League of Women Voters hosted the previous events.

That’s when I received a message from the Fishers Arts Council.  That organization was being encouraged to sponsor one more candidate debate.  The Arts Council asked me to be the debate moderator.

I had participated on a panel of reporters asking questions of the mayoral candidates in Columbus, Indiana back in 1979, but was not the sole moderator.  It was made clear to me I would be the moderator…I would pose all the questions.

I dealt with two people at the Arts Council to prepare for the debate, Jocelyn Vare and Gavin Fisher (Jocelyn now serves on the Fishers City Council).  We worked on the format and tried to come up with a way to form questions.  The Arts Council opened an e-mail account for anyone to submit questions.   I used at least one question from everyone that took the time to respond to that e-mail account.

Although I had help, fashioning the specific questions was totally up to me.  I viewed that as a big responsibility.

I know that journalists as debate moderators are often a target of the campaigns.  I braced for the worst but it never happened.  If anyone took issue with the way I ran the debate and the questions asked, no one told me. I  suppose that was a success in itself.

That election gave us Scott Fadness as our first mayor and he remains the Mayor of Fishers to this day.

I watched Kristen Welker and give her tremendous credit for a job well done in the final presidential debate.  Few people understand what a tough and thankless job that is, but Ms. Welker showed us why she is so well-regarded by her colleagues at NBC News.