About 50 members of the community looked lost in the big auditorium. As the forum started, the few elected officials on the stage looked lost among all the empty seats. But as the evening progressed, most of the seats on stage got filled.

The first issue up was health care. Candidates (or, in the case of the governor’s race, the stand-ins for Democrat John Destefano, Republican Gov. Jodi Rell and Green Party candidate Clifford Thornton — Robert Smuts, Sarah Richards and Alan Brison, respectively) were asked this question: What would you do to address the current health care crisis, and create a system that is accessible, affordable, comprehensive and equal?

Richards, speaking for Rell, said the governor was committed to improving access to health care for the 200,000 to 300,000 (her estimate) residents without coverage, through employer-sponsored insurance and federal and state programs. She said Rell had recently authorized $1 million for outreach.

Smuts, for DeStefano, said the health care crisis points to the need for a major change, not tweaking the current system as the governor proposes. He calls for universal health care that guarantees portability, affordability and pooling risk.

Brison said now in the U.S., “private health care insurers suck up 23 cents of every health care dollar. We have to deal the insurance companies out of the equation or we will never be able to provide affordable health care for all.” He said Thornton supports a single-payer system similar to the one in Canada.

Asked to respond to the previous statements, state Sen. Toni Harp (pictured, with fellow state senator, Martin Looney) agreed a major overhaul is necessary, including a change in the way government payments are made. She said, “Payment rates haven’t changed since the 1980s — and they were low then.”

State Rep. Bill Dyson expressed support for solving the health care crisis, but said it must be done in conjunction with solving the hunger and housing crises in Connecticut.

State. Rep. Pat Dillon said she was especially concerned with the 18-25-year-old age group, who represent a large portion of the uninsured in the state, and who have mental health needs, especially, that often go untreated. She added, “Let me be political for a moment. It’s absolutely critical to elect a Democratic Congress” or there can be no realistic hope of making significant improvements in health care.

At least the gubernatorial candidates sent stand-ins. All the seats for U.S. Senate Joe Lieberman, Democratic challenger Ned Lamont and Republican Alan Schlesinger remained empty until halfway through the forum, when Schlesinger showed up. Some state officials came late and some left early, but at some point during the evening both state senators (Harp and Martin Looney) were sitting on the stage, along with five of the six state representatives from New Haven. (Cam Staples didn’t make it.)

The next question asked participants to explain what they would do to combat the high rate of violence plaguing the city. Before the forum started, audience member Barbara Rodriguez (pictured at the top of the story) said this was her top issue. “Crime is a big issue. I had a son who was murdered in 2001. It’s something that’s always on my mind, how each day I hear about another killing.”

Rell’s representative said the governor has initiated three new “gun courts” to deal with those illegally possessing guns, and a statewide task force to address the problem.

Smuts said DeStefano wants to get guns off the street but that the whole issue must be looked at broadly, including violence prevention programs and activities for youth.

“Dealing with gun trafficking is very important,” said Alan Brison. He mentioned a bill in last year’s General Assembly — supported by most of the elected officials on the stage — which would have required gun owners to report stolen weapons in a timely manner, in order to help track their illegal use, but the bill failed.

But the main cause of violence, Brison said, “is the failed war on drugs. It makes criminal activity profitable.” The linchpin of Cliff Thornton’s campaign is the legalization of drugs like heroin, cocaine and marijuana, so they can be regulated and so the profits — and accompanying violence — can be removed, just as happened after alcohol prohibition ended.

Toni Harp was willing to jump on that bandwagon, and other legislators seemed open to considering the possibility.