Shoemaker Changes Format, Seeks One-On-One Visits With ‘Warsaw’ Voters
WARSAW — Mayoral candidate Ron Shoemaker has canceled his second listening tour and is instead offering to have one-on-one conversations with Warsaw voters.
Plans for his scheduled second listening tour were removed from his campaign website last week after his first event Thursday, April 11.
Shoemaker faces Mayor Joe Thallemer in the Republican primary on May 7.
Shoemaker announced the change on his Facebook campaign page late Tuesday night.
The announcement read in part: “Due to the success of our April 11th event, we have decided to extend a personal invitation to interested “Warsaw Voters” to meet individually with Ron.”
Discussions with Shoemaker need to be requested through his Facebook page.
The announcement stressed twice that the meetings are intended for Warsaw voters and said there were a “few openings” available for Thursday, which was the time originally set aside for this second listening tour.
The campaign has added another event from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, and also requests reservations for time with Shoemaker be scheduled through Facebook. No location was mentioned.
Shoemaker’s event last week was scheduled at the same time as a mayoral debate that had been scheduled earlier. Shoemaker declined to participate in the debate, citing a lack of Republican Party involvement as a reason.
The debate went on as scheduled and Thallemer answered 16 questions submitted by the public.
Both events attracted about 50 voters.
Shoemaker’s event last week included a momentary altercation between a woman from Winona Lake who was upset by another person who appeared to be photographing or videotaping her while she talked with Shoemaker.
Shoemaker did not return requests for comment last week and did not immediately respond early today, April 17, to a call or message left on Facebook about the new strategy.