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Students show political interest, organize event with state house candidate

The state house race in Columbia County was the focus of the town hall and it was all run by students.

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — Students ran the show inside Bloomsburg University's Carver Hall as they questioned a candidate for the open seat for Pennsylvania's 109th state house district.

This was the first time senior Kathryn Gingolaski moderated this type of event. 

"The advisor for the college republicans brought it up to me, and he said it was a really great opportunity to get the community involved and the campus involved in the politics regarding Bloomsburg, and I thought it was a really great idea," Kathryn Gingolaski, Bloomsburg senior.

Gingolaski says having something like this on campus is a great way to hear issues impacting students and the local community. 

"I think that a lot of politics kind of circle around the older generation, so it's really good to have a younger perspective because politics affects everybody, not just the older generations," said Gingolaski.

Libertarian candidate Thomas Anderson was the only candidate who attended the town hall. 

Anderson shared his views on several topics, all picked by students.

Bloomsburg junior Mathias Selby says these issues can be felt at the local and national level.

"One of the problems in Bloomsburg is waste management and recycling, so I was really interested to see how our candidates responded to environmental change, said Selby.

Junior Colleen Jetter believes starting with races like this one is the first step to dealing with the country's current political climate.

"I feel like a lot of the country right now is just separated, and I feel like you got to just bring it all together and look at the big issues at hand and try to tackle those one at a time," said Jetter.

The Bloomsburg campus is located in the 109th district.

Students will be among those voting for a new state representative on November 8.

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