Candidates who duck forums, factor you out

I’m going out on a limb today. I usually leave politics out of my Sunday musings. I really want these to be something in which a smile over a cup of coffee is a win.
But as goes with the mighty oak that peppers my roof with acorns and my yard with branches - every limb breaks.
I got an email Saturday on the way to Williamsburg indicating that now State Rep. Matt Rinker is bailing on the forums Mississippi Valley Publishing, Pen City Current, and the League of Women Voters are planning for the next three Thursdays.
Rinker was the ONLY member of the Lee County Republican party to commit to the state legislator forum that takes place on Thursday at the Lee County Career Advantage Center in Montrose at 6:30 p.m. It took some arm twisting on our part because Rinker has a litany of personal commitments including a family and volunteer work.
There are few things that rank up there with family and volunteerism. I know that more than anyone. But, after first declining as the rest of the state Republican state candidates have done, citing football and family, Rinker agreed to participate if I moved the forum to a date AND a time to accommodate his schedule. We did that.
Now six days before the event, he backs out with an undefined scheduling conflict. Let’s roll that back. Clearly, we were looking at his schedule when we accommodated it for the forum and jostled things around. This splashes in shallow water.
We can go all day on this but his reasons for not participating we hope are his own. What cannot and should not be ignored is the pattern of candidates this year who have declined to participate in a countywide forum.
They have unilaterally factored you out of this election.
Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, they don’t value your vote. They’ll read this and shake their heads and say I’m a small fish in a big pond.
But this small fish swims quicker than the big ones. Matt Rinker, Jeff Reichman, and Martin Graber, do not deserve your vote if they cannot engage with you as voters. Nor does Elliott Vandenberg, Jim Steffen, or Nic Atwood, all of whom now have said they will not be participating in their respective forums. I’ve been racking my brain trying to give them a reason for not showing up. You know what? There is none.
They put their name on a ballot in a crazy and admirable wish to represent the very people they can’t see their way to meeting with this Thursday or the following two.
The only way this can been seen is power over people. They believe they can win without getting in front of you in this format. Maybe they can, but what does it say that they believe that?
Graber said we didn’t reach out to his campaign, and he wasn’t aware and that was three weeks ago. I reached out to him directly before that and personally have not been provided a contact for his “campaign”. I did reach out to James Creen, the head of the Lee County Republican Party and encouraged him to remind all the candidates of the importance of being in front of voters this close to the election. And that was about four weeks ago. He said he would. He suggested questions had been released to Democratic candidates in prior years. This is unfounded even from them and it creates plausibility for absence without proof of assertion. They seem to want to win on the math.
Sen. Reichman said “we’re doing our own thing”. Fine, more opportunity for voters – why wouldn’t you do both?
We, too, have heard the concerns that a Democratic candidate was given prior access to questions at a debate in 2022. I’ve chased that down because I wholeheartedly hate when candidates have questions in advance. That candidate was Rebecca Bowker and she’s a data nerd and she’ll tell you that. To not think Rebecca would show up overly-prepared for any question is to greatly underestimate her.
The people that organized that forum in 2022 were still working on questions the day of the forum. All parties are adamant that questions were not released beforehand and never have been.
We need to be able to see what the candidates’ base of knowledge is off-hand, but also how they react and conduct themselves. It’s all part of the body of work. We need to see how candid they will be with questions and how their platforms are put together.
It's not only our right and our privilege, it’s our responsibility as voters to get in front of candidates, be informed, and make the best decision on Nov. 5.
Steffen said he, too, will not be participating in the Oct. 3 debate with supervisors, because he wanted it in his district and he wanted a long-form debate. We didn’t release the format for the forums until after all had committed to attend or not. So he couldn’t have known the format wasn’t a long form debate, and we believe this is. Any vote as a supervisor impacts the county in general. So having a countywide forum makes perfect sense, and even if it didn’t, he wants a seat at the table, so he needs to get to the table.
These folks cannot be worth a vote from any party, not because of their beliefs and platforms, but simply because they refuse to let you be part of any format. I could be wrong, but I’m not aware of any forums they’ve participated in. They can say they don’t like the League or the media or whatever, but damn, hate the player, not the game.
It’s literally part of the process they are just choosing to take away from you, as a voter. Let that sink in. You’re not worthy against a nothing-to-gain and something-to-lose mindset.
Let’s put it this way, if you come up with a reason to avoid voters and then have the audacity to ask for their vote, you cannot, cannot, be a representative of those people.
I’ve never been more independent in my life. It’s just one of the reasons my wife and I aren’t together. She says we don’t think the same way about those things anymore. I’ve voted for and endorsed Republicans and Democrats both. I want the very best person to represent me and my interests in Fort Madison, Lee County, Des Moines, and Washington. A person that won’t sit in a candidate forum so I can fine tune my base of knowledge on who that very best person is, will not ever get my support.
Your political preference is based on you and your interests. You vote for who you think is best in that sphere, right?
But if they dodge voters by not returning phone calls, emails, texts, and requests for appearances, how in anyone’s mind, can they be the best person to represent your best interests?
Elliott Vandenberg refuses to engage in a one-on-one with Stacy Weber unless the state patrol handles the event. The state patrol has no standing in Lee County government. He won’t get my vote, not because Weber is clearly the best candidate on paper – and he his, but because Vandenberg won’t go toe-to-toe with him, anywhere. Elliott’s a great guy with a great smile and somewhere along the line he’s family. But if I take the names and faces away and look at the resume and body of work, I’m voting Weber.
And that’s Beside the Point. It really is. The point is you put your name on a ballot - you wanted to do this. So when did it become on your terms? It’s the purview and the decision of the electorate to determine if you get to do this.
By telling us they will not engage in these large format forums tells me as a member of that electorate, that they think they can win on numbers, and they assume they have your support. In some cases they’re right, and in some they are wrong. But as one candidate told me recently…it doesn’t matter. You must face the voters and address the questions and concerns they have. Nothing else matters. Your vote is hypercritical to our process of representation. Want proof - ask U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks or Rita Hart.
I could never endorse, or worse yet, vote for (again, from a small fish) a candidate who willingly stays away from voters seven weeks from the election. That is the beginning of the end of the democracy we have through Election Day, and the Republic that exists after.
You cannot factor out the voters, and every single voter needs to send that message on Nov. 5. By putting their name on a ballot all candidates choose to win your vote, not assume it. Taking away your chance to listen to make that decision for yourself tells you all you need to know about that candidate, I don’t care what party you’re from. This is America. It ain’t the best, but it’s the best we’ve got – And that is Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor/co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.