BOARDMAN — Boardman Park’s Maag Amphitheater is usually a place where people get together to enjoy a concert.

But in these times of COVID-19, it was used Monday as the location of a forum for candidates and issues on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The Boardman Civic Association normally has its forums indoors. After much discussion, including with local health and safety officials, the association decided to have its forum outdoors at the amphitheater for social distancing purposes.

Those in attendance stayed in groups along with fellow supporters of specific candidates, separate from those backing other candidates. There were circles spraypainted in the grass to show distance.

About 100 people attended the event with nearly all of them there to back specific candidates. Several of those at the event wore shirts with candidates’ names on them.

Between each speaker, the microphone and podium were sanitized.

Mark Luke, an association member who served as the host, emphasized the event was a forum and not a debate with candidates and supporters of various levies speaking without rebuttals.

While they didn’t debate, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, and his Republican opponent, Christina Hagan of Marlboro Township, got in shots at each other during their speeches.

“It’s time we sent someone to D.C. who represents us,” Hagan said, adding that Ryan has disrespected law enforcement and has failed the district with his leadership.

Hagan added: “This district has lost so much over the years.”

“We’re in the political season where you get a lot of half-truths,” Ryan responded, saying that Hagan’s sponsorship of Senate Bill 5 in 2011 that sought to limit collective bargaining for public-sector employees shows she doesn’t support police officers.

He added: “My opponent doesn’t live in the district. She ran in another district two years ago she doesn’t live in and lost and will probably run in another district two years from now.”

Hagan also said it was time we left the labels of Republican and Democrat behind and worked in a bipartisan way.

Ryan said that’s what he does and pointed to being the 35th-most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representative in the most recent study from the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com