Letter: Objection to East Bay's CD1 endorsement process

Posted 9/4/23

While we have no quarrel with the choice of the editors, we do have objections to the process they used to come to that choice.

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Letter: Objection to East Bay's CD1 endorsement process

Posted

To the editor:

As Co-Chairs of the Warren Democratic Town Committee, and in response to the recent endorsement by East Bay Newspaper, we feel obligated to encourage all voters in Congressional District 1 (CD1) to view the debates, read the platforms, and do their due diligence research on each of the candidates in that race.

While we have no quarrel with the choice of the editors, we do have objections to the process they used to come to that choice.

The East Bay Media Group claims to use “electability” and “qualifications” as the criteria for selecting only four of the twelve Democrats on the primary ballot. Those criteria were not consistently or fairly applied. Only one of the chosen four has held elected office (Cano), one has since dropped out (Carlson), and one hasn't factored in any polling (Berbrick). These were the only ones considered to be electable and qualified??

How is it that the candidate reported to have the best poll numbers (Regunberg) and the candidate currently serving as the Lieutenant Governor (Matos) were not considered? Both of them have been on ballots in the East Bay before. In the 2018 primary, Regunberg won all three East Bay towns. In her 2022 primary, Matos did the same.

The endorsed candidate, Gabe Amo, has certainly proven himself by many measures, but to exclude so many others for consideration based on a vague metric seems a disservice to the readers. And so, with this "important federal post" being decided on September 5, we urge all voters to make a decision based their own reading of the candidates’ records, platforms, and public appearances.

Keri Cronin and June Speakman
Co-Chairs
Warren Democratic Town Committee

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Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.