PADUCAH, Ky. - Local candidates in Paducah got their chance to be seen and heard today at a local candidate forum.

The Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the event as City Commissioner hopefuls got two minutes each, and then candidates for mayor and 3rd District State Representative took questions from a media panel.

In that State Representative race, Gerald Watkins and Jason Crockett actually share many of the same views. The main difference that kept coming up between the two is their political parties. Both tried to use that to their advantage.

"It's critical to be a member of the majority party if you want to be able to bring benefits back to your district and get legislation passed that you would like to see get through the General Assembly. The minority in Frankfort and Washington DC, you get to play defense.  You never get the ball," Gerald Watkins said.

"He's a member of the same group of people that's been in charge in Frankfort since the 1920's.  If we talk about solutions to these problems, we really can't look to that group for the solutions because they've had the ball and dropped it," Jason Crockett responded.

In the mayor's race, the candidates have different views on whether the city and county should merge. Gayle Kaler favors the merger while write-in candidate Renee Raney is against it.

"I know there are people out there that would love to have input into the city and county having much better relationships. And even if the merger doesn't pass, that's something that we really need to work on," Gayle Kaler said.

"If the merger goes through, people are going to lose their jobs, taxes are going to go up, and it's not gonna go up after 5 years.  Whoever gets that seat has the opportunity to raise those taxes up whenever they feel like it," Renee Raney said.