Neither Mayor Michael Tucker nor county Legislator Keith McNall will attend the candidates’ forum being put on Thursday by the Concerned Niagara County Taxpayers Association.
Tucker informed an NCTA member he’s withdrawing after he received a letter from organizer Marge Swan of Cambria indicating the format is different than what he agreed to in a prior conversation with her.
“I agreed to a debate, not a free-for-all,” he said Monday. “I’m not participating.”
Tucker said he consented to a “debate” with Michael Pillot, the Democratic candidate for mayor, and assumed issue-oriented questions would be posed by a panel.
Swan sent Tucker a letter late last week indicating the participants will include candidates for mayor and county Legislature, 13th District, and the questions will come from audience members.
Tucker predicted the audience will be stacked with critics of his administration and/or local Republican leadership, and its questions will not be aimed at eliciting honest debate about city issues.
Over the past few weeks, he said, “it’s been said that I’ve ‘seen the writing on the wall’ and I bought a house in Florida where I plan to live six months out of the year; that I’m going to work for the Power Authority; that I took a big donation from Modern (Disposal Service, the city’s new refuse contractor).
“These are all blatant lies — and they’re coming from people who hang with” NCTA members and other anti-Niagara County GOP activists. “That forum won’t be about the issues; the questions will be by people with an agenda looking to lambaste me.”
McNall never responded to Swan’s invitation. NCTA is not a “legitimate” organization, and its members/affiliates are openly campaigning against him, he said.
“These organizers were actively campaigning against me on Primary Day, handing out literature,” he said. “There’s a very clear bias against me by these people, so no, I will not be participating” in the forum.
Swan readily agreed, NCTA members have campaigned against McNall, but she said the organization itself is not for or against particular candidates, it’s for getting out the vote by getting information to voters. That’s what NCTA forums are about, she said.
“We’ve never had a free-for-all. The candidates are all treated equally; our forums are fair,” Swan said.
Of Tucker’s complaint, Swan said it’s untrue that she changed the forum/debate format. She believes Tucker expected to know the questions in advance and dropped out when he found out it wouldn’t be that way.
“Is the mayor afraid to answer questions on the spur of the moment?” she asked. “Is (McNall) afraid to take a question about his (county-paid) health benefits? He knows that’s going to be asked about; you have to wonder.”
Swan told the US&J last week that questions would be taken from forum audience members, but they were to be written, submitted to and filtered/asked by her, NCTA member Edwina Luksch or former city alderman John Lombardi III. Personal and attack questions would be discarded, she said.
Pillot and Democratic legislative candidate Andy Chapman have agreed to participate in the NCTA forum.
Tucker and McNall both said they will attend a candidates forum being put on by the Niagara USA Chamber next week.
The 7 p.m. Oct. 24 forum at the Dale Association is open to all candidates for Lockport offices who are in competitive elections, meaning candidates for mayor, 1st, 4th and 5th ward alderman and the all-city 13th District legislator, according to chamber spokesman Kory Schuler.
The forum will be run on a question-and-answer format, with the questions originating from Chamber members, Schuler said. The point is to inform the audience about the candidates’ records and viewpoints on economy, development and other fiscal/business matters, he said.
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Tucker, McNall spurn forum
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