Keach, Other Candidates Blow Off City’s Only Scheduled Election Forum

CONCORD, NH — In less than three weeks, voters in Concord will go to the polls to choose who their next mayor will be as well as citywide and district city councilors and school board members. Some signs have crept up here and there in neighborhoods across the capital city. But, at the same time, it appears to be another sleepy election, due to lack of interest.

Some folks – including candidates – seem to not have a problem with another sleepy election since all but one candidate refused to commit to participating in the only forum scheduled for the 2017 election cycle … at the time. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Concord NH Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. Like Concord NH Patch on Facebook)

Ward 2 City Council Allan Herschlag, who is unopposed this year, hosts regular meetings at The Newell Post on Fisherville Road, sometimes with state Rep. Paul Henle, D-Concord. Not unlike two years ago, Herschlag put together a forum for candidates running for mayor and at-large city council at the restaurant and invited all the candidates to attend. The event was to be co-moderated by me and Mike Cotton of the Merrimack Valley Voice, something we’ve done together during past election cycles.

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Despite weeks of notice, only one candidate – incumbent Mayor Jim Bouley – confirmed he would attend. So yesterday, Herschlag canceled the event.

“It is unfortunate that the voters in Ward 2 will not have the opportunity to hear directly from the candidates who will be representing them,” Herschlag noted in an email. “If we ever expect to see more than a 15 percent voter turnout for our municipal elections, those who are running for the city council and those who are city councilors will need to make a much greater effort to speak to those they purport to represent.”

Two years ago, all but two candidates – At-Large City Councilor Mark Coen and mayoral candidate Paul Brogan – attended the forum. By all who were there, it was deemed a success, informative, and worth the time.

Since the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce hadn’t scheduled a forum, Concord TV hadn't yet booked candidates to do segments, and no one else was putting anything together, Herschlag’s forum was the only scheduled public forum for the cycle, with two local media outlets signing on to assist. If you’re a candidate for any political office, you know that September and October are crunch time – you need to set aside time to campaign, appear at events, prepare for newspaper editorial board meetings, etc., in order to win. So, everyone was pretty shocked that only one candidate would confirm.

When asked, only a couple of candidates responded to why they couldn’t make a firm commitment to the event.

Amanda Grady Sexton, one of the at-large candidates running for re-election, said she was out of town for work but otherwise, would be attending.

Roy Schweiker, a candidate for mayor, said he told Herschlag that he “hoped to attend” but couldn’t vouch for his health a week in advance.

“He seemed to consider that as a no,” he said in an email.

Fred Keach, another candidate running for re-election citywide, didn’t respond to an email. The candidate, however, had no problem attending a forum set up by Patch and Merrimack Valley Voice four years ago in Penacook. Maybe that was because there were six candidates running, not three, with five showing up to debate and the biggest issue the city was dealing with was the acquisition of a Bearcat SWAT vehicle for local and regional police departments.

Other candidates were unable to be reached by phone or email for comment.

Bouley remarked that he was disappointed that the event was canceled.

The Chamber has historically scheduled candidate forums for a number of years so it was stunning that the org didn’t schedule one for this year – especially when considering there are nearly as many contested races in 2017 as there were in 2015. Two years ago, its event had a decent crowd – as it did in 2013 and 2011 – with video clips and news stories featuring all the candidates and informing voters being posted online. The only candidate who didn’t attend the Chamber forum in 2015 was Brogan, who was out of town.

President Tim Sink said the org decided to take a pass this year and had booked with a lot of events between now and Election Day, including its Citizen of the Year event and an arts forum.

“We are just heavily programmed and the election snuck up on us during a very busy time,” he said in an email. “We will definitely do forums in the future.”

This year, according to school board candidates, none of the city’s parent-teacher organizations had scheduled a forum either – despite three contested races – something the orgs have put together in the past but haven’t during the past few years. Voter information isn’t even prominent on either the city of Concord’s website or the school district’s website. While the city has a dedicated Elections/Voter Info section with information on the inside of the site, the school district doesn’t even mention on its calendar that there is an election for school candidates on Nov. 7.

The lack of participation by candidates in the cycle’s only scheduled campaign event as well as no support from institutional and civic organizations that have assisted media outlets with voter outreach is astonishing. But, in many ways, it shouldn’t be. Municipal elections in Concord are held every two years but no one bothers to show up to vote. Turnout in Concord in 2015 was 15.8 percent; four years ago, it was 15.4 percent. In 2011, it was 15.5 percent. At the same time, with such a low turnout, every vote counts and the city’s municipal election cycle should be more than a popularity contest.

Competitive municipal races in places like Manchester, which has a “strong mayor” system, or Portsmouth, where the mayor is the top voter getter of all the city council candidates on Election Day, mean that candidates are actually out there hustling for votes every and institutions perform their civic responsibilities to encourage participation. City council and school board seats matters; the elected officials make important decisions and the activity is worth the voters’ time.

On Tuesday though, about six hours after Herschlag canceled the Ward 2 forum, the Concord Monitor informed candidates in contested races that it was putting together a forum for Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, at the McAuliffe Auditorium at Concord High School for mayoral, city council, and school board candidates. The event will run from 6:30 to 9:20 p.m. and include about four questions and a 60 second closing remark for all the candidates.