Duluth Chamber President Matt Baumgartner was absolutely right.

“We should have more people here,” he said at the outset of one of six candidate forums this week hosted and moderated by the chamber and the News Tribune — a candidate forum with fewer than 20 people in attendance.

Actually, none of the forums, held at The Garden in Canal Park, drew more than about 40 people. And that was in spite of them being for races for Duluth School Board and Duluth City Council.

Good luck finding any elected body that more directly impacts and affects our daily lives, where we live, and our finances than local ones like the school board and city council. These are the elected officials who determine our property-tax bills, how our streets get plowed and repaired, and what children learn in school.

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