Newton’s seven candidates for mayor have been invited to participate in a forum sponsored by U-CHAN (Uniting Citizens For Housing Affordability In Newton) and the Newton Clergy Association on Weds. Aug. 23, 7-9 p.m.
at Eliot Church, 474 Centre Street and Newton Corner.
The three sitting city councilor mayoral candidates (who are also all registered Democrats) –Ruthanne Fuller, Scott Lennon and Amy Sangiolo — will participate in a forum sponsored by the City Democratic Committee on Thurs, Aug.24, from 7-9 p.m. at the Newton City Hall War Memorial Auditorium 1000 Commonwealth.
Eliot Church, 474 Centre St. Newton, Mass.
Assessed value: $4,723,000
Property taxes: $0
The candidate who is willing to tackle that problem, deserves to be Mayor.
On the August 24th Forum at City Hall: The race for Mayor of Newton is non-partisan election, and the event is being held in City Hall. All good, but where are the other candidates? Were the non-democrats invited to attend, and if not, then why would Scott, Ruthanne, and Amy attend?
Municpial government functions best with transparency and the elections are legally non-partisan for a reason.
Newton cannot be inclusive if we are exclusive.
I respect the city’s Democratic Committee’s right to limit their event to candidates who are registered Democrats. And I also personally would like to see Lennon, Fuller and Sangiolo debate without the distraction of the other four candidates (who really are, in my personal view, are a distraction).
But I do wonder about the legality and appropriateness of holding this event in a public building AND restricting who can participate.
I’m guessing someone in the city and/or city committee confirmed the legality of this but it would be great if someone could confirm that.
Also, I thought Eli Katzoff was a registered Democrat. Am I mistaken?
@Greg: Actually the other 4 candidates may find that the Top 3 are a distraction to them? The dynamics of adding additional candidates to the debate is that they don’t have a filter and will bring up issues that compel the group to address.
I’m all for publicly vetting whomever is qualified to be on the ballot.
@Councilor Cote: In theory sure, but in practice that’s not what’s happening.
I’ve moderated two of the forums to date and watched others. I haven’t seen anything close to what theoretically could happen actually occurring. Two of those four candidates have been moderately interesting, two just suck oxygen out of the room. And none of them are challenging the three sitting councilors on issues or ideas.
Also, I could care less about our candidates being distracted, I’m interested in helping voters make substantive decisions between three highly qualified candidates.
Here on V14 2 threads prior the leading Democratic council candidates speak of ‘unity’ in the video. A quick hypocrisy self-check is in order. The ”don’t do nothing” theme should apply here as well. The saving moment would be for the 3 Democratic councilors to uniformly bow out of the Democratic forum unless all are invited. Those with institutional memory will remember pre-preliminary instances of the candidates bowing out unless the NDCC becomes more welcoming in a welcoming city. Hold true to the values of honor, respect, and full inclusion.
Greg Reibman is correct here: I am registered as a Democrat and running as one, and have always voted Democrat.
One of the reasons I chose to run for mayor was that I felt it was important to step up and add a new young voice to this race and bring fresh ideas to the table. This is what the national Democratic party has been vigorously urging, especially since the 2016 election: that young people and those formerly outside the political system get involved.
Unfortunately, however, the Newton Democratic City Committee wrote me to inform me that I was not invited to participate in the Democratic mayoral forum on August 24 at City Hall with the other 3 Democratic candidates. The ostensible reason was that I didn’t formerly register as a Democrat until July. The July 1st date is an arbitrary date that was chosen retroactively and doesn’t exist as a requirement for running as a member of the Democratic Party or as mayor. Although I wrote them expressing my disappointment and dismay and asking them to reconsider, citing the importance of getting new young voices involved, they did not change their position.
I admire and respect the other 3 Democratic candidates and have nothing personal against them. However, it seems clear to me that the reason the city’s Democratic officials chose to exclude me was to limit participation to those candidates who until recently held public office, in this case as Newton City Councilors.
In this fraught political climate, the national Democratic Party has been putting out the call for more civic participation, more people to run for office, more young people to get involved in the electoral process and to vote, especially on the local level. The Newton Democratic party’s decision to exclude me (especially as the only Democratic candidate excluded) sends the opposite message: that new voices are not welcome; that holding political office is a pre-requisite to having a seat at the table; and that the Party officials, and not the voters, decide who the public should listen to.
This is unfortunately the wrong message, and is only going to discourage others like me from stepping up to participate in the future.
Eli Katzoff,
Mayoral Candidate
If Bernie Sanders was allowed to run for president as a Democrat, despite being very openly and adamantly NOT a democrat for his entire previous political career, then there’s no excuse for not allowing Eli to be considered one of the Democratic candidates.
Hypocrisy lives on!!!
Eli, welcome to my world!!!
I’ve started a new thread about this here.