Second Selectmen's Debate Canceled

Today I recieved a note from SudburyTV, including the following:

Unfortunately, we will not be able to cover the One Sudbury Selectmen's Debate. It has been our practice to only cover debates in which all members of the race are present. We got emails from Mr. Woodard and Mr. Simon letting us know they won't be participating. That prevents us from covering it.

Without them there is no broadcast to enable broader participation. While there would be some value in hearing from the other 3 candidates, it's not sufficient to proceed. For this reason we have decided to cancel Monday's debate.

I accept my share of the blame for this outcome. One Sudbury concieved of this debate, dealth with the OCPF requirements, reserved the building, prepared for the custodial fees, secured the participation of all three media outlets, applied for the liability insurance, reserved the police traffic detail, and promoted the event. We couldn't imagine all of the candidates vying for new seats created by the 3-5 movement not wanting to participate in it. In retrospect that was naiive. And I was certainly not ready for the barrage of personal attacks on me over the last 48 hours, though I guess that comes with the territory.

In the end, though, it was Mr. Woodard and Mr. Simon that shut down an opportunity for the voters to learn more about their candidates for Selectmen - to put them in front of the media and ask them questions and get the answers, whether those voters could get sitters or not. I beleive the approach we proposed would have helped get more people involved in the politics of our town. Now we'll never know.

I know some will see this as some kind of victory. Frankly I think that's a little sad.

Thanks to those of you who worked to make this event happen, and those who planned to participate. I'm sorry we weren't able to pull it off, and hope you will continue to fight to open up Sudbury in the face of those determined to keep it very much shut down.