28 Comments

I am not sure how I feel about : You HAVE to debate... What I am surprisingly amazed about is that not debating seems to not hurt candidates at all... If anything it often hurts the candidate who is willing to debate

pos_trfnKKK and Paula Collins is the perfect example... same with pos_tfnKKK and Matt Castellitwo years ago. because it didn't give the Democrats a chance to a) show how they differ from pos_t and because there was not the 'conflict' of both parties, surely the ratings and number of people who watched a one-person debate would be down... and c) (I believe) there is the perception that without one of the other candidates it would be easy or soft for the one that showed up... something I don't feel is true, because a reporter will has hard questions regardless who is there.

And ny21 (or any district when a republican doesn't show up) constituents didn't get to see pos_tfnKKK being fact checked.

stefanik is a liar and she lies at many levels, mostly by omission and /or not answering the question that was asked...

And when you have a war chest like pos_tfnkkk you can propagate your likes with ads that are never fact-checked.

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What I do believe should happen is:

1) Before the petitions are made, there should be 2-3 debates in place... Perhaps the same time every year.. Say the second Monday in September and October. that way when a candidate picks up his/her petition they know when to make free time (and of course dates can be rescheduled)

2) Each candidate has free advertising on the local/relevant media. By advertising, I mean they are interviewed by the media and the media must present those interviews during prime time (i.e. the news). And this like everything would include fact-checking.

3) All paid advertising will be fact check. Perhaps this would completely destroy media that depends on all the revenue they earn from elections. But no one should be able to advertise with lies, regardless of how much money they have

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What is amazing about the yankees not being to the World Series is not that, but: the yankees have not been to the World Series in 15 in spite of spending a billion dollars to get there.

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The League of Women Voters should advertise their invites, explaining their importance, and amplifying, the non- and/or negative and/or affirmative responses of *named* candidates.

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Maybe it's the word "women" that has them ignoring the invitations.

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Yeah, that may just be it.

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then again 'voters' would turn off most republicans...

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Darren Johnson organized an event during our last local election. Every Democrat/Unaffiliated candidate showed up. Not a Republican in sight. Today our School Board, Town Council and Village Board seats are filled with Democrats and Unaffiliated. We hit bottom with Magas 2 years prior.

s and Unaffiliated can work together again.

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Corrected.....We hit bottom with Magas 2 years prior. Let's hope we can cast them out in this election. I look forward to the day when Republicans, Democrats and the Unaffiliated can work together again.

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Bravo to Darren for hosting the event. That is making a difference.

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my answer to this voter injustice is to take a more favorable look at the candidate who is willing to debate...and these days, it's usually the democrat candidate who is willing to debate..."nuff said". again, thanks Ken for tackling this issue for us...

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Jeremy Messina also eschewed a candidate event last week in Greenwich, sponsored and moderated by Darren Johnson, Publisher of the Greenwich Journal. It was not billed as, nor was it conducted as, a debate. Rather, candidates were invited to discuss democracy and interact with voters. How can that be slanted toward Democrats?

As he did with the League of Women Voters, Jeremy Messina ignored the Journal's invitation. As I understand it, he did not respond at all. Only Paula Collins, Carrie Woerner, and Greenwich Town Justice candidate Judge Rachel Clothier attended.

The Republican candidates who did not attend, or at the very least send some comments, missed an opportunity to help voters know who they are. Their choice to avoid the personal dialogue that is central to democracy, the topic of the event they stayed away from, did, however, comment for them.

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If you are running for public office and not willing to interact with the voters, answer their questions, what will it be like if they are elecrted?

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Like calling Stefanik’s office nowadays, where she never responds and where her “staff” don’t have a clue.

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It is increasingly difficult to get face time with undecided voters. We are all in our silos -- Dems with Dems and MAGAs with MAGAs. Today's NY Times has an article that affirmed what I have been experiencing for several weeks now -- it's super difficult to advertise and host an event that undecided voters will attend. Our day-to-day reality has become a mirror of what we do online and on social media forums.

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I’m concerned with the loss of media in more rural areas. What happens if a time comes when candidates debate but there are no reporters to bring the news to a wide audience?

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You are seeing many rural areas around the region as news deserts. We at The Post-Star always had enough staff to cover Washington County and northern Warren County - even places like Thurman that created lots of news - but you are not seeing much news covered outside of the core Glens Falls/Lake George market these days.

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Looking forward to hearing from Aaron Woolf.

I’m guessing Messina is counting on the preponderance of Republicans in the area to carry him to victory. That would be a shame. I’m curious if he’s being funded by Stefanik since she has bazillions more than she needs for her own race.

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He is counting on exactly that.

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So if the former President and Elise and so many others, mostly if not all Republicans, assume they can get the job without the interview, then maybe I should contact The New Yorker and tell them to hire me without an interview. I'd love that. Wouldn't that be grand? No more job interviews, just show up like Kathy Bates's Matlock in the conference room and say, "I'm your new hire. Nope, you haven't heard of me, but I'm here and ready to go to work. So,...whatcha got for me?"

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Thanks for this Monday morning’s issue of The Front Page. Debate article stirred up memories from 1989 when I was a candidate for our local school board in southeastern Ohio. It was a conflicted school district (no new locally approved funding for ten years, threat of state taking action, an ineffectual administration and board, two teachers’ strikes, low morale).

Seven candidates were running for three positions (no incumbents, which said a lot). Several (I want to say five but not sure) community forums were held, with all seven candidates participating

All the forums were productive. But, by far, the best was the forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and televised by the local college TV station. The League is always at the top of its game.

As a footnote, after four years the district was named by the Ohio State School Board as one of its “Schools of Excellence.”

Looking forward to Aaron’s essay and the reading of your play someday.

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As Carrie Woerner said, "the League of Women Voters is the gold standard."

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LMAO on the Jeremy Messina debate challenge stunt. IMO it backfired, and rightfully so. But if you look at his education and career background you quickly realize that he has very little to offer as a candidate for that level of office in NYS and I believe one of Stefanik's former campaign trainees, Brady Stark, is involved with Messina campaign. Enough said. Hope people remember some of the dirty tricks she used in her campaigns of past. Stefanik is another example of a person who doesn't want to do live debates with someone who just might be smarter than she is (and would probably make her look really bad). Paula is an attorney with a very analytical brain, I would have loved to have seen that one. Not sure Stefanik's attack dog techniques like her last TV performance (where college President's left their jobs) would play well here. Carrie Woerner would have destroyed Messina. That said, I'm not sure everyone at all levels should debate because the time involved here and the number of debates that would have to happen just isn't realistic in today's world. I think state level jobs and higher yes, but as a former local elected official and current candidate, there really seems to be little interest in the public until shortly before the decision needs to be made. And if you look at the number of local positions that are unopposed it becomes clear that the numbers up here in the North Country favor one party by an overwhelming majority once you get above Glens Falls. Can't wait for this election cycle to be over, but I hope Democracy doesn't die in the process.

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I've visited Jeremy Messina's FB page. He offers no ideas, just plenty of anger and hate. Oh, and did I mention the disgusting FB posts the Messina/Brady Stark campaign allow on his FB site about three women candidates, Woerner, Hochul and Harris? I find it ironic that Messina is the father of two young girls and yet he has no problem allowing posters to comment on the physical appearance, sexual comments, etc. of these three women. Policy differences are appropriate. Sexual content and one's physical appearance should be off limits. He's unfit for office. Shame on him.

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I looked up his information on LinkedIn, and after reading it realized this is first time for public office. Maybe if he ran for town council inf Greenwich or village Mayor but to shoot for Assembly first time out with his credentials was laughable at best. Oh well, it will be fun to see the numbers, but Carrie has a long, bipartisan group of supporters who know how good she is. We loved her when I was town council and Deputy Town Supervisor in Hartford, and Dana Haff, one of the most conservative REP town supervisors in the region, is backing me for Lake George town council run, and was a big fan of Carrie's. She was a no BS person, she regularly checked in with her townships, and fought for many of the funds we needed for our local community. When you look at how much big new fire fighting equipment costs, or try to get an important historical landmark rebuilt, she was there for us!

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Nice to see all your campaign posters still standing on way up to Lake George on Rt. 9, Bob . Yours outnumber the E-lies ones! 🙂

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Drinking responsibly means not spilling!

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Most Republicans are working hard to delegitimize all democratic (lower case d) institutions. Especially those that provide transparency and oversight. This is the standard playbook for the preparation for an authoritarian takeover.

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It is sad that many politicians avoid debate and public scrutiny. Instead they choose controlled interviews and, of course, blatant commercial advertising. We vote without knowing who they are and what they stand for.

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