No Mulligans This Time

On July 17^th I sent a certified letter to Senator Peter Bragdon challenging him to a series of four Lincoln Douglas style debates (Candidates ask questions of each other instead of a moderator asking the questions) in all four of district 11’s communities Amherst, Merrimack, Milford and Wilton. (http://www.dandwyer2012.com/Debate_Challenge.html) I asked him to contact me in 24 hours so that we could begin the planning of the debates. He spoke to members of the media about the challenge on at least two occasions but never had the courtesy to contact me to accept, reject or negotiate a different style. I chose to contact Senator Bragdon by certified mail since I remembered the difficulties Mark Fernald had in 2004 when he challenged him to a debate via phone http://info.nhpr.org/node/7407

It would have been nice to at least know why Senator Bragdon doesn’t feel that it would be beneficial to District 11 voters for them to see the only two candidates running (There is no Democratic candidate) for the Senate seat debating the issues that will affect them in the coming years. Was it that he didn’t have time to debate, was that I wasn’t a worthy candidate or maybe it was that he felt it was a waste of his time. I wish I knew the answer but he never contacted me. Almost half of the voters ( Merrimack citizens) in district 11 are new to the district, didn’t he feel they deserved to know how the candidates would represent them if elected? Time is up. It’s been six days since I sent the challenge, five days, since he signed for it. More than enough time to give a reply, yet there was none.

Well, unlike the Fat Cats in Concord who Kowtow to him, I will not, and unlike Mark Fernald in 2004, I will not be chasing him and pleading for him to debate me. Senator Bragdon had a chance to do the right thing and chose not to. I will not play cat and mouse games or listen to hollow explanations. A week has been wasted, that is plenty. I am now focusing on other ways to get my message to the voters of District 11.

I gave Senator Bragdon a mulligan last week when misleading statements showed up on his website. I can’t give him a mulligan this time. He may be a nice enough guy, but he had a chance to do the right thing and chose not to. The voters of district 11 deserved better, if not a debate at least an explanation. Right now that explanation appears to be arrogance- pure and simple. I believe after ten years serving in Concord that Senator Bragdon is more beholden to the Fat Cats who fill his campaign war chest than the citizens of District 11.

Do you think if one of his lobbyist donors asked him to contact him that he would refuse to? No, probably not, according to the tens of thousands of dollars he has taken from special interest groups in the past few years. When a public servant starts caring more about the next donation than the people he serves it’s time to go. Arrogance? Comfort? Entitlement? Maybe one maybe all, but I believe Senator Bragdon has reached that point, and for the good of the people of District 11 its time for him to leave Concord.