Normally a routine stop on the campaign trail for local politicians, League of Women Voters candidate forums apparently will be more sparsely attended than usual this election season.
No forums are scheduled in the races for Lake County clerk, treasurer and sheriff, with candidates weaving different narratives about why and what is to blame.
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Mary Matthews, a director on the board of the League of Women Voters of Lake County, said the organizations’ local chapters are, “disappointed that candidates are not making themselves available to answer the public’s questions.”
The League of Women Voters follows an “empty chair” policy which means it won’t host a general election forum without participation from the candidates from each major party.
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The slate of Democratic candidates vying for countywide offices, Sheriff John Idleburg, Treasurer Holly Kim and county clerk candidate Anthony Vega, who is Idleburg’s chief of staff, blasted their opponents on Sept. 21 for having “all turned down” invites from the League of Women Voters of Lake County.
“In doing so, they have shut down the opportunity for us to answer questions from the League and the participating hosts,” the statement read. “Their collective omission goes against everything your nonpartisan organization has done to protect and expand voting rights through grassroots organizing. Make no mistakes, their omission is voter suppression.”
The letter was addressed to several chapters of the League of Women Voters that operate in Lake County, as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Lake County Branch and the Mano a Mano Family Resource Center, which has sites in Round Lake Park and North Chicago.
Mark Vice, the Republican challenging Idleburg for Lake County sheriff, said that he did want to participate in the forum before the League of Women Voters canceled it and said he “didn’t officially decline.”
He said he is concerned about an email sent by league’s leadership to its membership about potentially shaping questions for candidate forums based on what participants learned from a September panel on gun violence that featured Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart, a Democrat, but no Republican officials.
“You’re having a forum that only has Democrats in it, so if you’re going to base (on) that, then you’re showing that you’re not a nonpartisan group,” Vice said.
Vice also said his work schedule forced him to ask for a later start time for the forum, and that the countywide slate of panels was canceled before he and the League of Women Voters set a time for the sheriff’s panel.
County Clerk Robin O’Connor, a Republican, said it was the League of Women Voters who emailed her that her respective forum was canceled and that, “I didn’t talk to them at all.”
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“I look forward to reconnecting and collaborating with the League of Women organization,” O’Connor said on Thursday. “This organization should represent a nonpartisan voice for all women.”
Paula McGuire, who is running for treasurer against Kim, declined to comment when reached by phone on Wednesday.
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, has chosen to avoid participating in a forum with Republican challenger Joseph Severino.
Schneider said he didn’t know how many forums and debates he has engaged in over the years because the number is so large, “but this one is different” because of his opponent.
“Severino has a long record of spreading conspiracies, from whether COVID was a hoax to the election, you name it,” Schneider said. “What’s different is I’m not willing to give these conspiracies the legitimacy of a forum, especially the way things are structured. It’s not a debate over ideas, but a fight over what is reality.”
Severino said Schneider has opted to put “out these unhinged Facebook ads, lying about my positions,” rather than take the stage next to him.
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“That’s what he’s afraid of,” Severino said. “Exposing me, from a strategy perspective, could probably only hurt him. But the reality is, he’s been here how long? He owes (voters) an explanation of the job he’s doing.
“He’s debated (other Republicans),” Severino added, “What’s different here?”
Mark Curran, a Republican running for the Illinois State Supreme Court’s 2nd District seat, will not participate after doing so during his primary campaign and when he was the Lake County sheriff.
“Mark’s campaign has not declined to participate, but unfortunately the League of Women Voters chapter decided to proceed without us because a date and time had not been agreed upon,” campaign spokeswoman Linda Prestia said last week. “Regardless, Mark will continue talking directly to voters of the 2nd District about his experience as a sheriff and prosecutor who stands up to party leaders and advocates for public safety and equal justice under the law.”
Prestia also said Curran “prefers to get his message out directly to the voters that are going to show up, rather than an echo chamber of people that continually push identity politics and a left-wing agenda” and that the campaign is skeptical that the forum “moves the needle” with voters, pointing out that some forums have received around 50 views on YouTube.
Matthews said the League of Women Voters simply seeks to engage voters, improve access to politicians and not wade into partisanship.
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“We are nonpartisan,” Matthews said. “The questions come from the public, so it’s not a setup and it’s not just their own people. It’s the public.”
Lara Cooper, spokesperson for Democrat Elizabeth “Liz” Rochford’s campaign, blasted Curran for not agreeing to the forum.
“Mark Curran has refused three times to share a stage with Judge Elizabeth Rochford to hide his extremist anti-abortion positions and ‘not recommended’ rating from the Illinois State Bar Association, thereby backing out of campaign forums by making up lies about reputable, nonpolitical organizations like the Lake County League of Women Voters, which has absolutely no agenda other than to inform voters,” Cooper said.
Curran’s campaign did not agree to October dates for a forum due to scheduling conflicts, and will also not appear for a forum he was invited to by the Kane County League of Women Voters.
His messaging about the League of Women Voters echoes the tone of Catalina Lauf, a Republican candidate in Illinois’ 11th Congressional District, which includes part of southwestern Lake County.
Lauf called them a “far-leftist group” in an Instagram post from May 11 when announcing that she wouldn’t participate in the forums this cycle.
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“The League of Women Voters, while that sounds like a nice organization, they don’t do nice work,” Lauf told followers. “I refuse to attend or support anything organized by a group that creates division in our country, that peddles Marxist ideology, that wants boys in girls’ bathrooms.”
Lauf added that she would “love to debate someone from the League of Women Voters” itself.
Schneider said he has never felt the League of Women Voters has been “slanted in my favor or ever felt they were slanted against me,” and that “they always played it straight, gave equal time to all candidates.”
“Anyone can say anything, and it’s not going to be contested,” Schneider added.
An area of bipartisan agreement might be on the format of the forums, which don’t allow for exchanges between candidates, personal attacks or rebuttals, and generally keep to a 90-second window for answering questions posed by the moderators. Attendees are also encouraged to ask the candidates questions.
“It’s not a debate, it’s a forum, which is one of the issues,” Schneider said. “Anyone can say anything and it’s not going to be contested.”
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Earlier this year, Vice participated in a League of Women Voters forum during the Republican Lake County sheriff primary, but since his opponent John Van Dien wouldn’t show, he was limited to a three-minute statement before the Democratic candidates answered questions about their candidacies.
Trickling down
Candidates could simply be following an example set by political pacemakers like President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who debated twice in 2020, the fewest number of debates in a presidential campaign since 1996.
In a particularly acrimonious first debate in September of 2020, Biden retorted to Trump, “Will you shut up, man?” as he repeatedly interrupted Biden while talking about the Supreme Court.
Refusals to meet opposing candidates for debate — and even engage in less dramatic, open forums like those the league hosts — has filtered down the ballot from higher-profile races this cycle.
The candidates in hotly contested gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns in Wisconsin are scheduled to debate just once. The same goes for high-profile U.S. Senate campaigns in Georgia, where Raphael Warnock is facing Herschel Walker, and in Pennsylvania, where Dr. Mehmet Oz is running against Democrat John Fetterman.
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Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican running against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine, recently became the first major party candidate in Missouri in 20 years to duck the Missouri Press Association’s forum, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
As the national trends trickle down, a handful of League of Women Voters chapters in Lake County have been greeted by some candidates with little enthusiasm, and haven’t heard back from others at all.
“ (Candidates) will often say, ‘Well, my schedule doesn’t allow me to,’” Matthews said.
Even on the Lake County Board, which members often claim can be insulated to an extent from the polarization that has seeped into the country and higher offices, is being affected.
Neither candidate in an open election for the District 16 County Board seat is set to take part in a forum, at least as of now.
Republican candidate Ed Liberman said the League of Women Voters said the forum with his opponent Esiah Campos had been canceled, but that he was open to sharing a stage if the event could still be scheduled.
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Liberman said he feels that voters lose out when candidates “are unwilling to speak with them,” though he expressed some concern about political bias of forum moderators, then clarified that he wasn’t suggesting the league was biased.
“I also believe that candidate forums can be a useful tool to help many constituents make informed decisions at the ballot box,” Liberman said. “That said, I also have a genuine concern that more and more often these days, the groups sponsoring candidate forums don’t take a central (unbiased) position and therefore the voters only get to hear answers which were intentionally pushed in a certain direction and/or to accomplish a predetermined agenda.”
Attempts to reach Campos were unsuccessful.
District 6 incumbent John Wasik, a Democrat, said Friday he was “disappointed” that Republican opponent Justin Kaechele had not agreed to a forum.
“In the more than three decades my wife and I have lived in Lake County, League of Women Voters debates have been indisputably open, fair and nonpartisan,” Wasik said. “I believe we need more discussion of vital issues in a healthy democracy, not less.”
Kaechele said the forums allow for a “really short period of time to sometimes answer important sensitive questions in the community beyond the County Board.”
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“My concern, too, is there’s just really not enough time in the format to answer questions fully given the full context and your position,” he said. “They’re also not well-attended and the recordings are not (widely) watched, so it’s not really a huge factor for the voters in the area.”
While the explanations from political incumbents and upstarts vary significantly, the frustration is clear for members of the League of Women Voters of Lake County, whose expressed mission is “empowering voters and defending democracy through voter education, issue advocacy and citizen participation.”
Matthews said, “We consider this a real problem.”