Posted on 10/21/2005 8:46:37 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
C L I F T O N P A R K : Republicans to spurn LWV voter forums
GOP chair charges partisanship against well-respected League of Women Voters BY PAM ALLEN Gazette Reporter
Town Republican candidates will not participate in Wednesday’s forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Saratoga County, claiming the organization is "over-influenced by liberal partisans and activists at the organization’s highest level."
Michael Lisuzzo, chairman of the town’s Republican Committee, said the league cannot be considered nonpartisan because its vice president, Susan Burton, is a Democratic Party activist who circulated petitions for the creation of a ward system of government in town, an issue supported by the Democrats. The Republicans will now host their own "Meet the Candidates" program the same night as the league’s event, and does not plan to attend future league-sponsored candidate forums.
Among the matters addressed in recent e-mails between Lisuzzo and LWV President Barbara Thomas was Lisuzzo’s objection to the event’s format, and his request for some changes. He said prescreening of the questions does not allow an opportunity for party chairmen to direct questions to the candidates, and unused questions should be made public before they are destroyed.
Lisuzzo also questioned the league’s decision to ask two noncandidates — Lisuzzo and town Democratic Vice Chairman Todd Kerner — to spend five minutes each talking about the ward system. Candidates should be the people addressing the proposal because they are the ones directly affected, he said.
Thomas says the event will go on as scheduled, and charges Lisuzzo with attempting to "bully" the league into changing its format. "I deplore his boycott of the event. The whole point of a ‘Meet the Candidates’ event is to have all the candidates there, and playing under fair rules," she said.
Thomas also said Burton and other members of the organization have a right to their personal views. "It shows that she believes that it is important to allow ideas to be discussed by the public, and decided by the voters, shows that she believes that it is important to allow ideas to be discussed on their merits, not that she was behaving in a partisan fashion," she said.
Republicans will not attend future candidates forums sponsored by the organization unless the league agree to some adjustments, Lisuzzo said. "As for bullying, I asked for, in a very polite fashion, what we believe are very reasonable modifications," he said.
Democratic Committee Chairwoman Jan Lemon called the boycott "arrogance unparalleled." The League of Women Voters is a well-respected organization that has conducted candidates forums at all levels of government, she said. "Mr. Lisuzzo’s attitude is just one more reason why this town needs a ward system. His absolute power is corrupting absolutely," she said.
Halfmoon’s GOP has declined the league’s invitation as well, but for reasons other than those of their neighbor, said Regina Parker, chairman of Halfmoon’s Republican Committee. Officials will be attending a townwide meeting outlining tentative plans for a new town center. The meeting was scheduled before the league extended the invitation to the forum, Parker said.
The league’s forum is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Shenendehowa Senior Citizen Center at Clifton Common. The GOP’s event will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at The Vista restaurant at Van Patten Golf Course on Main Street in the hamlet of Jonesville.
A letter to the editor listed the party's website where the full text of the Letter to the League can be read without a newspaper's writer bias.
The website is cliftonparkgop.org
Good idea, but about 20 years too late.
The old lady libs still in the League still think they are the final arbitor of everything. This really got their panties in a twist.
When the forum is not, as it claims, impartial,
it's self-destructive to help them keep up the
pretense with your participation.
Which makes it even more mysterious that the White
House even talks to people in Legacy Media.
Huh? You mean the League of Women vipers?
Kinda like an oxymornic statement isn't it?
That's an excellent idea for all these so-called 'town-hall meetings' and 'candidates' forums.'
Show ALL the questions, so the supposedly objective reporterettes who emcee the event (like Carole Simpson --or Thimthen, as Rush pronounces it) can't away with the fraud they pull. Not as shamelessly as they do now, anyway.
My mother called them "The Plague of Women Voters."
Yeah, the LWV long ago was captured by the left. Out here in California, the LWV is opposing every single conservative measure and endorsing every single liberal measure. Coincidence? Shyeah.
They're even opposing Prop. 75, which simply requires public-sector unions to get each member's annual permission before taking extra paycheck money for political purposes. 20 years ago, the already-liberal LWV still would have supported THAT sensible reform.
Not today. LWV, rest in peace. Now it's the LLWV.
Thanks, Pro.
No question about it. One look at the links on their website, like "smartgrowth" initiatives, and it removes all doubt tha they are "non-partisan".
The League of liberal women voters is about as representative of women as the NOW gang.
It seems like a reasonable request doesn't it, however in the story the League flatly rejected this notion. totally absurd.
Agreed, which is why their continual claim that they are non-partisan must be called so that they can take a place in the trash heap of liberal groups right where they belong.
It's rare to see, but when it happens it sould be applauded
Yep, that one is as old as the League itself.
The libs are trying every trick in the book up here, including the usual cover-up of their agenda, party affiliations etc. I noticed they are even sending in letters from children to the community newspaper, announcing their support for their candidates and crying about Walmart (Soros' Working Families Party is using this as a backdoor issue to get support for their candidates).
A N A G R A M "women voters" you practically get move on, the only thing missing is dot org.
Yep, the league is comprised of move on women who stay in the closet to maintain their non-partisan cover.
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