& students "snubbed" by
congressman
October 20, 2004
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Delahunt ‘too busy’ to debate, aides say
Duxbury students others feel ‘snubbed’ by congressman
By Tom Benner
BOSTON- Duxbury High School students say they feel “snubbed” that U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Quincy, is too busy to attend a school-sponsored debate with Republican opponent Michael Jones of Plymouth.
Three news organizations—New England Cable News, radio station WATD in Marshfield and the Barnstable Patriot—also say they have been rebuffed by Delahunt’s office in separate efforts to schedule a face-to-face debate between the two candidates to the 10th Congressional District seat before the Nov. 2 election.
His aides say Delahunt is too busy campaigning in swing states for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to commit to a debate in his own race. He is running for fifth two-year term in Congress.
Delahunt aides also maintain a candidates forum scheduled for Thursday in Falmouth will amount to a debate—even though its sponsor, the Falmouth League of Women Voters, doesn’t call it that.
“I don’t think it’s going to have the rigor that I consider a debate,” said Sylvia Szulkin, voter service chairman of the Falmouth League of Women Voters. Delahunt aides admit their boss might not show up Thursday night.
Duxbury High School senior Andy Grossman, president of the school’s student council and an intern for Delahunt’s rival Jones this past summer, said the congressman’s office has been noncommittal since a Sept. 21 invitation to a debate at the school.
“We thought it would be a good opportunity to get kids involved, especially when interest is already so high,” Grossman said. “If they agreed with one candidate or another, they could hold signs, do voter registration, sign up to help out, just to get kids involved in the process.”
“We’re a bunch of first-time voters, it would have been educational if he had come and held the debate,” Knapp said.
Anne Maher, a Duxbury High senior who will be a first-time voter in two weeks, said: “I’m really excited to vote, and I thought it would be really interesting to hear what they had to say. So many don’t understand what the issues are, so I thought it would have been excellent if they came to the high school and educated us.”
Duxbury High Principal John McCarthy confirmed that the students made an effort to organize a debate in the congressional race, and that the school hosted a state Senate debate in 2000.
Christine James, manager editor of the WATD news department, said Delahunt personally told her he is too busy volunteering for the Kerry presidential campaign to debate his own challenger.
Matthew Mazzotta, a producer for New England Cable News, and Barnstable Patriot publisher Rob Sennott also said Delahunt would not agree to repeated requests to debate.
Delahunt spokesman Steve Schwadron said planning ahead is difficult because the congressman is at the mercy of Kerry campaign schedulers. Delahunt returned to Massachusetts two days ago after campaigning in Florida, and expects to be called up again by Kerry later this week, Schwadron said.
“If John Kerry calls and asks Delahunt to go to a battleground state, he will do that whenever asked,” Schwadron said.
Schwadron also defended the practice of sending a surrogate—Delahunt nephew Robert Delahunt of Weymouth, a paid campaign employee—to campaign appearance such as a recent event in Hanson.
But Jones said he doesn’t buy it.
“All we’ve heard from them is that they’d love to debate but he doesn’t have time,” Jones said.
“Unlike all the other members of Congress, this one feels as if he has no obligation to come to the public square to debate the issues of our time.”
Info@PlymouthCountyGOP.com
