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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

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.