Republicans Opt Out of Candidate Forum

Brick, NJ — With only one week until the election, New Jersey Senate Candidate for Legislative District 10, Emma Mammano, is calling out incumbent Republicans Jim Holzapfel, Gregory McGuckin and John Catalano for avoiding a vital opportunity to engage with voters.

In July, Mammano reached out to the League of Women Voters (LWV) to request a forum where voters could hear from all the candidates running in LD10. The League of Women Voters sent both the incumbent Republicans and their Democratic challengers a ‘formal invitation package’ with a proposed date of October 13th. Mammano, Kono and Quilter accepted, while the Republicans declined. Four more dates were subsequently proposed by the League of Women Voters. The Mammano team accepted two of
he proposed dates. Those dates were conveyed to the Republican ticket, which turned down one, but said they would look into the second. After a significant amount of time had passed, Dr. Evelyn C. Murphy, the President of the Southern Monmouth County Chapter of the LWV, reached out to the Republicans by phone and offered to work with them to find a suitable date. After that contact she received no response, and eventually informed the candidates that, “As we have heard nothing from the Republican candidates regarding dates for which they might be available, we will be unable to schedule a Candidate’s Forum for Legislative District 10.”

Following the news, Alex Kirschner, Campaign Manager for Mammano, stated, “Public forums are critical opportunities for voters to learn where the candidates stand on issues that are important to the community. A forum moderated by a non-partisan entity like the League of Women Voters allows people to get to know the candidates and is commonplace in races across the country. It seems that keeping voters in the dark and avoiding a public platform that would contrast the incumbents Holzapfel, McGuckin, and Catalano to their challengers is part of their strategy for maintaining their positions in office. It’s disheartening and antithetical to the principles of democracy.”

Upon receiving the news that the Republicans were unwilling to offer this opportunity to the voters in their district, Senate Candidate Emma Mammano commented that “It is disappointing, but unsurprising, that our opponents refused to participate in this forum. It seems they prefer to have as little interaction with their constituents as possible. That’s not what a genuine public servant does.” Mammano went on to stress that she is the kind of representative who will be out in the community, listening to residents: “State Legislators work for the people of the district. They should always be ready and willing to participate in a public dialogue. When I am the senator for LD10, I will institute regular town hall meetings, so I can stay up-to-date on the concerns of my constituents.”

Mammano is running again in 2021 after challenging Senator Holzapfel in 2017 for the same seat. Her
platform focuses around preparing and protecting the community from environmental degradation and
deadly storms, improving healthcare access and affordability, restoring school funding.
For more information, please visit thejerseshoredeservesmore.com.