With a week to go before the election, 10 of the 11 Fulton County Commission candidates for District 7 answered questions at a political forum.

The forum was sponsored by the South Fulton Chamber of Commerce and Shannon Mall. Noted Atlanta writer Jeff Dickerson moderated the discussion, which turned out to be quite amicable.

The chamber had submitted a list of questions to the candidates and the first part of the debated centered on the candidates' responses to those questions.

One of hardest hitting questions by Dickerson concerned ethics. Dickerson was visibly upset when he asked how the candidates would fight off the temptation that drove Commissioner Michael Hightower out of office.

All of the candidates said they were honest and knew how to say no, but perhaps the biggest chuckle during the debate was Jimmy Bennett's answer.

"I run a non-profit, so you know I'm not interested in money," he said.

There was not a single break-out issue that really separated the candidates. Many agreed the state would have to look into the issue of alternate funding for MARTA and Tom Jones agreed with Fairburn's recent action that supported Fulton County Commission Chairman Mike Kenn's recent call to action by the state to take some of the burden off of Fulton County.

The candidates also agreed that Grady Hospital funding needs to be looked at and suggested that Grady serves a lot more residents than just those in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

"I served on the police force for a number of years and I saw tags from all different counties at Grady," said Willie Mays.

The candidates agreed the perception of South Fulton County is negative in a lot of people's minds and one of the biggest jobs of the commissioner is to work and get out the message that the county is a great place to work and live.

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