‘Scheduling Conflicts’ Force Cancelation of NH Gubernatorial Forum

RINDGE, NH — The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University set up two gubernatorial forums for this week but after three of the major Democrats running for governor bowed out due to “scheduling conflicts,” the event was canceled. The cancelation has left Derek Dextraze and Ian Freeman – two of the lesser-known candidates on the ballot – out in the cold without any opportunity to have their voices heard on major media outlets or forums before the Sept. 13 primary.

Tonight at 6 p.m., the center was supposed to host a 90-minute forum with all the Democrats running for governor. It was the only debate or forum that either candidate had been invited to, despite being on the ballot in New Hampshire. At forum after forum after forum, both candidates have been excluded from functions organized by local Democrats or blacked out by media organizations.

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Freeman is no stranger to this situation. The former Free State Project member and radio talk show host ran for governor two years ago as one of two candidates challenging incumbent Maggie Hassan. Hassan refused to face Freeman at the cycle’s only gubernatorial forum – also set up by FPU and broadcast on New Hampshire Public Television – when invited. The strategy worked – she won the primary easily; Freeman received 4 percent of the vote and another challenger, Clecia Terrio, a pro-life Democrat, received almost 2 percent. But Hassan was expected to win anyway which made blowing off the only gubernatorial forum scheduled for Democrats in 2014 primary so baffling.

Freeman, though, said he thought this year would be a little different, since the nomination and the governor’s race is an open seat. When FPU set up another forum this year, slated for tonight, he and Dextraze – an author from Dover – both agreed to participate, according to a blog post Freeman posted yesterday. But then, the event was canceled due to lack of participation by the “big three” Democrats running: Mark Connolly, Steve Marchand, and Colin Van Ostern.

"I find it interesting that the two candidates that really aren't politicians said ‘Yes’ to debate,” Dextraze said, “while the other three candidates that WMUR says are the only three candidates on the Democratic side for governor said ‘No’ or didn't respond."

A closed process

Connolly, Marchand, and Van Ostern have been traveling around the state at local Democrat Party and other functions that have been closed off to both Freeman and Dextraze despite the fact that their names are on the ballot.

One party official told Patch that the state party didn’t recognize Freeman or Dextraze as “real Democrats,” so they were being excluded. Another organizer putting together an event noted privately that there weren’t enough microphones for five Democrats to participate but somehow, though, the media outlet managed to fit four of the five Republican candidates on the air.

The aforementioned Republican forum – like other forums around the state for the GOP, including a major forum last month in Windham – also excluded Jonathan Lavoie, a self-described “regular citizen” running for governor since the fall of last year. Lavoie – despite low name recognition and limited press coverage – scored 3 percent in a WMUR-TV poll, conducted a week after the Windham forum, besting a better known candidate included in events, state Rep. Frank Edelblut, who received 2 percent and won the forum’s straw poll.

Too busy to participate?

When contacted by Patch, representatives for Connolly, Marchand, and Van Ostern all said their candidates had “scheduling conflicts” and couldn’t attend.

Grant Hallmark of the Marchand campaign said that they didn’t actually receive an invitation to the forum but after finding out about it, declined to participate.

When a public event schedule was requested from the campaigns, Allison Ehrich Bernstein of the Connolly campaign stated that the would be recording an interview on Manchester’s community cable access channel at the same time as the forum, something that was confirmed by Patch. Neither Hallmark nor Trojan sent their candidate’s public event schedule. One noted that they thought the event was being rescheduled.

Kristen D. Nevious, the director of the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication, did not return an email yesterday seeking information about the events.

“What a shame that the big name Democrats are too cowardly to debate the lesser-known Democratic candidates for governor in New Hampshire,” Freeman said. “So much for inclusiveness and transparency.”

Both Dextraze and Freeman noted that it was an interesting phenomenon that both candidates could be blacked out by media organizations even though they were on the ballot. WMUR, they claimed, had offered limited coverage of their campaigns and when WGIR-AM held a forum with the candidates on Aug. 10, an event co-sponsored by New England College and the Concord Monitor, they also weren’t invited, a fact confirmed by Patch last month.

When Dextraze inquired about coverage on WMUR, he was reportedly told that since he hadn’t sent his itinerary of events to the station, they didn’t think he was really running.

“Sounds like a lame excuse to me,” Freeman said.

GOP event is still on

The Republican gubernatorial forum is still scheduled for 6 p.m. on Aug. 18.

Lavoie said he had accepted the invite last night and will be participating with Edelblut, state Sen. Jeanie Forrester, and Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas. Chris Sununu reportedly has a scheduling conflict, too, according to Freeman. Beyond a couple of radio interviews, this will be the first forum that Lavoie has been able to participate in.

Freeman noted that he had been sent candidate questionnaires, been invited on the radio, including Girard at-Large on WLMW-FM and the morning show on WMNH-FM, as well as cable access. Offerings from those outlets though aren’t the same as news coverage or forum inclusion on the largest television station in the state and one of the most listened to radio stations in the state and the most listened to commercial news/talk station, according to Neilsen Audio Ratings. It also raises the chicken and egg discussion – how can the lesser-known candidates or non-politicians running become better known so they can get into debates and forums if they aren’t covered fairly by the media because they aren’t as well known as the establishment politicians?

“It's common for New Hampshire media organizations to reach out to all ballot qualified candidates,” he said. “It's either pure laziness of these media organizations or a deliberate decision to exclude smaller campaigns.”

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