A presidential debate in Augusta… sort of

Thursday night state Senate Majority Leader Elizabeth Mitchell will answer to the name “Hillary Clinton”. She’ll take on Clinton’s persona and answer questions from the audience as the frontrunner Democratic presidential candidate.

All of the other presidential candidates, except for U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, have promised to send surrogates. These include staff or campaign workers. The event will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. at Augusta City Hall.

The audience will address the surrogates as the candidate, who will then answer in their persona.

Each candidate will collect money. The winner’s campaign can keep the donations; the rest will go to the Kennebec County Democratic Party. This is their legal version of a straw poll, said Rita Moran, county chairwoman.