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Early
in the 2007 Guilderland town board campaign, incumbent Michael
Ricard sued challenger Warren
Redlich in an effort to knock Redlich off the ballot
and deprive voters of a choice in the election. Speaking to a reporter
at the time, Ricard boasted that, if Redlich remained on the ballot,
Ricard would debate "anywhere on any topic."
(see Altamont Enterprise article from August 2, 2007 - 3rd story) Ricard failed in his effort to deprive the voters of a choice. Confronted with this failure, Ricard and his running mate Dave Bosworth refuse to debate the challengers (Redlich and his running mate, Mark Grimm). Redlich and Grimm asked the League of Women Voters to coordinate a debate, and proposed three dates. Bosworth and Ricard cloak their refusals in vague and wordy responses. They did not deceive the League or the Altamont Enterprise. In the October 4 issue (print only), the Enterprise called on Ricard and Bosworth to raise the level of discourse and debate Redlich and Grimm. This is the third election in a row where Bosworth and his team have refused to debate. See: Altamont Enterprise - 10/05 Altamont Enterprise - 8/05 Below are some quotes, mostly from e-mails, showing the efforts of Ricard and Bosworth to evade debates. These are long, so we've highlighted the key spots. Read more about Guilderland NY and the 2007 election. |
| From the League of
Women Voters (Maggie Moehringer): 10/3/07: Mr Carroll, in response to your inquiries from the Altamont Enterprise: The following is the sequence of events from the League of Women Voters of Albany County vantage point concerning a Town Council candidates’ forum in the town of Guilderland. The LWV is a strictly non-partisan grass roots organization that sponsors activities to inform the electorate. On the Albany County level, we are volunteers, not paid staff. On 9/6 I received an inquiry from Mr Grimm regarding the League’s interest in sponsoring and staffing a debate for those running for the office of Guilderland Town Council that would be held at the Town Hall and televised for PATV. I replied that the League of Women Voters of Albany County was willing to bring together such an event. We emailed back and forth that day to establish that he, Mr Redlich, and the Town Hall were available for October 22, 23 and 25, and he provided me with the contact information for the other candidates. From that point forward all of my correspondence was with all of the candidates, and on 9/6 I emailed all of the candidates with the information concerning the request for the debate, the role the League would play, the availability dates that I knew for Mr Redlich and Mr Grimm, and requested that the other candidates, Mr Bosworth and Mr Ricard get back to me concerning their willingness and availability. Receiving no confirmatory email from them, I also called Mr Bosworth and Mr Ricard. By 9/15 I had not received a reply, and emailed all of the candidates concerning the status of replies and my intention (not carried out) to notify the Guilderland Spotlight of the invitation and its status. I received a reply from Mr Ricard that requests for town debates were historically handled by the town party chairs (Mr Bosworth is the Dem town chair, and Ms Davis is the newly appointed Rep town chair, who, Mr Ricard said, might have been unfamiliar with the process), and that perhaps Mr Redlich and Mr Grimm didn’t know that, and that they all had already agreed to a forum sponsored by a neighborhood association. I had previously been unaware that such an event had been planned and agreed to by the candidates. On 9/16, Mr Redlich forwarded to me an email dated 9/16 from Don Reeb, the president of the McKownville Improvement Association, addressed to the Town Council candidates, reconfirming that a Meet the Candidates night would take place on October 17th at the Holiday Inn on Western Ave at 7:00, and describing the format. I also received an email from Mr Bosworth stating that the town chairs coordinate the candidate events, that the arrangements should have been addressed over the summer if the candidates wished to debate, that he had conflicts with the dates, and that procuring the town facilities would be an issue. At that point I replied to all of the candidates that the LWV is interested that forums for candidates take place and are adequate for the purpose of public information about the candidates, and that if the forum on Oct 17th was adequate for that purpose, the League had no reason to press that a forum sponsored by us takes place or to get involved with informing the media. Mr Redlich replied to everyone that the McKownville event was not adequate for the purposes of informing the whole town, not televised, and that he believed that the LWV had sponsored a televised debate in the Town Hall six years ago. I responded to all the candidates asking why, if setting up televised town debates negotiated by the town chairs is the typical procedure, it was not taking place in this instance. Ms Davis was then contacted on 9/24 and said that she was in favor of a televised event for the town council candidates. Mr Redlich responded that since Mr Bosworth was not only the chair but a candidate, he should not be the one coordinating the details, that coordinating through the chairs was not necessary, that McKownville had coordinated their own details and that the LWV could also (which is true). On 10/2 I received an email from Mr Bosworth saying that they were going ahead with the McKownville event and that their effort would be directed to that event, and that “attempting to consider a second, more involved, forum event would be quite optimistic.” While the date is late, the League continues to be available to coordinate this event if the candidates can agree to possible dates, an appropriate venue is available, and television media coverage if desired is possible to arrange. Maggie Moehringer League of Women Voters of Albany County |
From Dave Bosworth: (Incumbent and Democratic Chair) 10/2/07: Maggie: The Democrats are not refusing to participate with or coordinate with the League. As stated on a number of occasions, we continue to work on coordinating our Candidates' participation with the McKownville Forum event - which has been on the docket since early August - and is a repeat event of several election cycles gone by. There is still work to be done in concluding the arrangements and protocols for this event with the McKownville Association. We believe that these assurances should involve a good faith commitment on the part of the two major Parties, as well as the Association, to Fair Campaign Practices and civility. We believe that these understandings should be in writing and agreed upon by all Parties and publicized in advance of the event, with the Association taking the lead. At this point, it is our position that attempting to consider a second, more involved, Forum event would be quite optimistic, particularly given the difficulties and dismissive attitude that we have incurred in obtaining basic cooperation with our opponents regarding the McKownville Association event, but which quite frankly, has also typified our experiences over the course of the last five or six election cycles with our varying Republican opponents in Guilderland. Dave Bosworth ----------- 9/16/07: Ms. Moehringer: I received the attached "CC" of an email reply made to you by Mike Ricard last evening. (Evidently, your previous message of 9/6 was not delivered to my email box, or may have been blocked, etc.) The email address that you attempted to reach me at is a generic, (low cost), "Hotmail" address that I use and list on many public websites. I receive a high volume of emails at this site on a daily, basis, but unfortunately, given the nature of using a POP mail account like Hotnail, I have an occasional dropped or blocked message. I will now add you to my "safe list" as a precaution. At this point, the Guilderland Democratic Candidates have made a commitment to a "Meet the Candidates Forum" with the Guilderland Republican Candidates on October 17th, through the sponsorship pf the McKownville Improvement Association, an active and longstanding Neighborhood Group in Guilderland. This committment was made over this past summer and follows a many year tradition of participating in this bi-ennial forum with this organization during campaign season. As indicated by Mr. Ricard, in his response to you, this commitment involves all of our Town Candidates, including those who are unopposed in both parties. In the past, it has been the protocol in our Town that candidate events during campaign season be coordinated between the Town Chairs of the two major parties along with the head of the potential sponsoring organizations, eg The Chamber of Commerce, and Neighborhood groups such as the McKownville Association, FORCE, the Council of Neighborhood Associations, etc. Issues such as mutually agreeable dates, location, and particularly, ground rules surrounding the publicity and ground rules for such events, etc. etc. have been part of this protocol. The goal being to avoid the conflicts, confusion and the acrimony often surrounding these events that had arisen in the past, through poor planning, as well as inadequate and mis-communication between the Parties, especially involving opposing candidates through the media. I just learned (informally) a few days ago, that the Gulderland Republican Committee, a few weeks back, appointed a new Town Chair, Barbara Davis, who originally was planning to run for Town Board, but stepped down. I assume that the McKownville Association was in touch with her, as I understand that Mr. Redlch has accepted their invitation to participate. Up until this point, there were no discussions between the previous Republican Chair, Lee Carman and myself about Candidate Forums/Debates this year. Ideally, discussions and planning for a candidates' event should have commenced over the summer. Again, at this point, the Guilderland Democratic Candidates have agree that we will be participating in the McKownville event on October 17th. Other considerations that are involved in considering the LOWV event include: the proximity of your proposed date(s) to this event, (in this case, a week or less) and the mechanics of publicizing and assuring that all candidates could attend both events, and in addition, promoting and assuring adequate attendance at two such events, etc. There are also issues of the availability of the Town Hall facility, and staffing, as well as the costs of overtime and special pay arrangements, etc. In addition, for myself, I have at least two personal conflicts ... In closing, I would note that I would be glad to speak with you further about this matter, during the coming week. My apologies again for being unable to reply sooner. If possible, could you also send hard copies of any further correspondence to me from the LOWV to my home address at: 5 Providence Street, Albany, New York 12203. These are important matters and given the recent problem with my email, I would like to avoid any recurrence. Thank you. Dave Bosworth |
From Mike Ricard: (Incumbent) 9/15/07: Maggie, For the past eleven years I have sat on the board, town debates have always been handled by the Town chairs directly, never candidate to candidate. I believe that both Mark and Warren have accepted a neighborhood debate forum in mid October, I have not received written confirmation from the chair of that organization, but verbally I have been told that this is the case. Also, as in the past all candidates for Town Office (Town Board, Sup) have in the past had time to to participate in the forum, contested or not. Thus Mr. Runion has been omitted. Arrangements should be made from the Town Chairs, that being Ms. Davis (Rep) and Mr. Bosworth (Dem). I Believe Ms. Davis has just accepted the position from Mr. Carmen. Perhaps she was not informed of the request or does not know the process. 9/24: Per my earlier email to Maggie , it is should be handled by both the Rep. and Dem. chairpersons, and not the candidates. I see no reason as to why after all these years to change the process. There is more to the process then just flipping on the camera's etc., as some of the Town's logistics have changed from the last debates several years ago. This all needs to be resolved etc. so I will defer to the chairpersons.. Debating legitimate candidates is a great issue in it self. Debating individuals is another. 10/4 (Altamont Enterprise): Ricard said he would still debate Redlich and Grimm, but said a proper debate needs to be funded and set up by the political parties, and then sponsored by a neutral third party. “There’s strict rules involving using the town hall for political purposes,” Ricard said. “I’ll debate them wherever they want to debate, but logistics is not my problem.” |