09/26/2025
Last call for questions for general election debate
City of Tonawanda’s general election debate will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at the City of Tonawanda School auditorium at 555 Fletcher St. in Tonawanda. The city’s 10 candidates running for five positions along with the two candidates running for one Erie County Legislator position that covers Tonawanda, are scheduled to participated in the debate. The city positions include the mayor and four councilmembers for the four wards in the city. The five Democratic and five Republican candidates will debate against each other for their five respective positions.
The debate will be moderated by the Ken-Ton Bee editor and staff. Residents are invited to email the editor at [email protected] to send in their questions and have “Debate question,” in the subject line. You can ask multiple questions addressed to one or more candidates. Residents are requested to clearly indicate which candidates the questions are directed at, when the questions are submitted. The questions will be anonymous, so any problems faced by residents can be addressed, as long as they are not derogatory. Submissions of derogatory remarks or comments will be discarded. The deadline to submit questions is Wednesday, Oct. 1.
The candidates running on the Republican line are John White for mayor and Rick Maier, Blake Boyle, Ray Schultz and Bill Simon for councilmembers in the four wards, respectively.
The candidates running on the Democratic line are Bill Strassburg for mayor and James Shiesley, Christopher Fisher, Susan Gregg and Jason Voisinet for councilmembers in the four wards, respectively.
The two Erie County Legislator candidates are Democratic incumbent John Bargnesi against Scott Marciszewski on the Republican line.
For details on the debate, visit https://tinyurl.com/58rt54ct.
