The Atlantic County League of Women Voters has been asked to moderate a candidates’ forum in Margate.
MARGATE – The date for the Margate Homeowners Association and Margate Business Association’s jointly sponsored candidates’ forum has yet to be etched in stone, Downbeach.com has learned.
Although MHA President Jay Weintraub set the date for May 4 at the William H. Ross Elementary School, some of the candidates are not available on that date, according to the incumbents’ campaign manager.
There are four candidates vying to be elected in the May 14 non-partisan Board of Commissioners election: incumbents John Amodeo, Michael Becker and Maury Blumberg, who are running as a team, and newcomer Calvin Tesler. The top three vote-getters will be seated to four-year terms.
According to Weintraub, Tesler has confirmed his attendance in writing, but he has yet to hear from the campaign manager for the Amodeo-Becker-Blumberg team.
“We are waiting for Mayor Becker, Commissioners Amadeo and Blumberg to return their letters of commitment as promised by their campaign manager Tim Perskie last week,” Weintraub wrote in a Facebook post on the MHA page this morning.
“There has been absolutely no contact with us after five e-mails and four phone calls,” Weintraub said in a telephone interview later in the day.
The forum, which will present questions to the candidates that are garnered from the public, could help voters decide who should represent them on the three-member Board of Commissioners.
The MHA and MBA are collaborating to sponsor the event with the League of Women Voters moderating the forum to ensure it is impartial.
The questions will come from the public and be culled down by Weintraub and MBA President Ed Berger to ensure the questions are appropriate, Weintraub said.
Boxes will be placed in locations around Margate for voters to submit their questions, he said.
Perskie said Weintraub announcing the date for the candidates’ forum may have been premature and that nothing has been ironed out.
“I’ve received a commitment letter from Jay Weintraub, but there is an issue with the date,” Perskie said in an email to Downbeach.com. “Mike and Maury are away on May 4th, so we need to come up with an alternate date.”
Additionally, May 4 is the date for the citywide yardsale, and it may not be convenient for residents to attend, Perskie said.
Perskie also said there are other matters the slate of candidates is taking into consideration that need to be addressed.
“We need to sort those out before we settle on a new date,” he said.
