The Effingham Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a candidates’ forum, which will be held Oct. 9 at the Effingham County Board of Education auditorium, beginning at 6:30 p.m. There are two contested local races, the county commission chairman at-large and the District 1 county commission seat. Those candidates are expected to attend.

Invitations have been extended to the congressional candidates in the U.S. House Districts 1 and 12 races. So far, District 1 incumbent Jack Kingston has accepted the invitation and will be there at about 8 p.m. It would be welcome if all four candidates were to appear — the debate/no debate stances between John Barrow and Lee Anderson have led to no joint appearances for the two hopefuls and District 1 Democratic challenger Lesli Messinger, to our knowledge, has not made an appearance in Effingham since the primary.