Selectmen’s Debate: Where We Are

Right now, the vast majority of people in our town have no idea who Dan DePompei, or Chuck Woodard, or Eric Poch are. Most voters don’t know why these candidates are running, what they stand for, or how they differ from one another on whatever issues those voters feel are important. They’re just names on lawn signs, or at the bottom of a letter or two in the Patch, or the Crier. That’s it.

Some of these voters are genuinely interested in making an informed choice on the 25^th, but haven’t had the time to pore through all of the materials created by each campaign. Maybe you’re one of these people. I know I used to be.

To help you, there will be a second selectman candidates debate at the middle school on Monday night. It will be moderated by Rob Fucci from the Patch, and Jeff Adair from The Town Crier. It will be broadcast by SudburyTV, and webcast live on the Patch site. You will be able to submit questions from no matter where you’re watching, and the candidates will be asked the most popular of those questions. It’s never been done like this before, but it could be pretty cool. And after 90 minutes, you’ll be ready to vote for whomever you like, in both races.

The “One Sudbury” group organized this debate because we believe more broad participation of our citizens would be good for the town. You may recall that “Open Up Sudbury” was the rallying cry that created these seats in the change from 3-5 Selectmen, by a fairly substantial margin. That was us.

One Sudbury will not endorse or support any candidate in this election, 3 of whom have already agreed to participate in the debate. A range of political viewpoints are in fact represented in the group, united by a common set of principles which seem like common sense to us:

1. Citizen participation,
2. Openness & transparency,
3. Fiduciary common sense,
4. Fiscal sustainability, and
5. Proactive leadership.

If you support these ideas, just click here and join the group, and take a look around. It’s closed to avoid spammers and the anonymous commenting that tends to poison debate, but no one with a Facebook page in Sudbury will be refused (again, this is a highly testable assertion... just click here.)

I, however, am a private citizen, and have openly endorsed 2 of the candidates. This is my right, and I make no apologies for it. Recognizing it would compromise me as an objective moderator, however, I asked Mr. Fucci and Mr. Adair to moderate the debate, and they both agreed to do it. My role was to be handling the questions from the audience, since I know a little more about social media than most.

Now two of the candidates – Mr. Simon, and Mr. Woodard – have decided not to participate in the debate because I’m playing this role. I responded to their concerns as soon as I read them in the Patch, offering to withdraw myself from even the handling of the audience questions. I’ve since asked the League of Women Voters to step into that role, as a gesture of outreach to Mr. Simon and Mr. Woodard, as both seem enamored of the debate held by the LWV several weeks ago. If the LWV is unable to play this role, I’m quite confident we can find someone more agreeable to Mr. Simon and Mr. Woodard than myself.

Now both candidates need to decide whether to reconsider, and participate in next Monday night’s debate. To me this seems like an easy choice, especially from a post-election perspective. If they choose not to and lose the election, it will be at least in some part because they squandered an opportunity to reach out to the overwhelming majority of citizens who created the seat they hoped to occupy. If they choose not to and win, they will preside over a town that remains just as divided, entrenched, and hostile as it's been the last few years. Can’t imagine that will be much fun.

Or – having successfully removed me and my “bias” from the dias – they can choose to spend 90-minutes in front of voters just like you, across all manner of broadcast and electronic media, taking your questions, and demonstrating themselves to be people at least willing to try to restore some civility and dialogue to our town politics.

I still hold hope for the latter outcome. 

So what will it be, Mr. Woodard and Mr. Simon? Will you join the other 3 candidates, and a large audience of voters at the middle school and at home next Monday night?