Stockton University will be the spot for the latest Atlantic City mayoral debate Tuesday night.
But the debating seems to have started well before the 7 p.m. event.
Only half of the six candidates vying for the role of city leader were invited to participate by the Hughes Center and Press of Atlantic City.
“We all went through the process of getting enough signatures from voters to get on the ballot, so all of us should be able to participate in all debates,” said Jimmy Whitehead, the only independent candidate invited to participate.
The practice is to invite the two major party candidates and any independent who raised and spent the minimum that requires them to file a campaign finance report with the Election Law Enforcement Commission, or ELEC, explained John Froonjian, executive director at the Hughes Center.
“Meeting a minimum finance threshold is a common standard for debate participation used widely in the United States,” he told BreakingAC. “This is used as recognition of the reality that money is needed to run a credible campaign at any level. Meeting a minimum polling threshold is another common standard, but we did not poll in this race.”
“It sounds like they intended (to) exclude candidates based on what they think, (that) finances determine potential,” said Councilman Mo Delgado, who is running as an independent. “Sad.”
Independent candidate Steve Layman raised more than $39,000, his 29-day pre-election report filed Oct. 14 shows.
“We are including the independent candidates who filed a campaign finance report by the Oct. 4 ELEC deadline,” Froonjian explained in not inviting Layman.
Several people from Layman’s campaign have reached out to Stockton, but “they’re just unwilling to do anything but what they want to do,” he told BreakingAC.
Neither Delgado nor the fifth independent, Dr. Daud Panah, have filed reports.
Incumbent Mayor Marty Small has not filed his ELEC report.
“We always invite the major-party candidates automatically, based on the two-party election system we use and New Jersey’s recognition of their status as formal political parties under the definition in state law,” said Froonjian, who will also moderate the debate. “But we give all candidates an equal shot to participate if they raise and spend just the minimum amount. And I think that’s fair and recognition of reality about campaigns.”
Buzz Keough, The Press of Atlantic City’s executive editor, will be a panelist at the debate along with Front Runner New Jersey’s Clyde Hughes.
“As for who participates, I defer to the Hughes Center requirements and John’s statement on how the decisions are made,” Keough told BreakingAC.
All six candidates have debated just once, Oct. 5 at the Uptown Complex.
Small missed two other debates that invited all six candidates, including one hosted by BreakingAC on Sept. 20.
The public is invited to the Stockton debate at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Fannie Lou Hamer Room in Stockton’s Frank Scarpa Academic Center in Atlantic City.
