EDITORIAL: Hey, democracy. We gotta talk.

There’s a disturbing trend of local candidates refusing to appear before voters. The public deserves better.

Feb. 24, 2026

By John Boit

For the first time in 40 years, the good citizens of Brooksville have a genuine contest for select board. Two candidates. One seat. Actual suspense. Local democracy in action, right here during our nation’s 250th anniversary, no less.

And yet.

When The Rising Tide invited both people running for the seat to a simple candidates’ forum—not a debate, not a cage match, just a polite evening where citizens could meet their potential choices while they answered moderated questions from voters–one declined. Or rather, candidate Shawn Duffy did not return any phone calls or emails.

When we offered the two candidates a chance to fill out a questionnaire for publication, Duffy again ghosted us, while his opponent Linda Gifford responded, as you can see in our coverage this week.

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. It’s a disturbing trend emerging here in our local democracy.

In Penobscot, there are two candidates running for a single open select board seat. And so, again, The Rising Tide offered to host a candidate’s night.

Again, one candidate, Vivian Turner Welts, declined while her opponent, Scott Ferden, accepted. In the end, the best we could do was to publish both candidates’ answers to emailed questions in an article last week.

To put this in context, this dismissal of voters by some candidates seems to be a rerun of last year’s selectboard race in Blue Hill, when two of the four people running for select board skipped a candidates’ night hosted by the library. In that case, the evening went forward, with two empty chairs representing the absent candidates.

Look, there’s no law that says you have to attend a candidates’ forum. You can run for office and campaign entirely by interpretive dance if you wish. But when you decline an opportunity to meet the voters and discuss the issues, the public deserves to know.

A candidates forum is not a gladiator pit. It’s more like a church supper without the casseroles. You shake hands. You answer questions from neighbors with diverse backgrounds and beliefs about roads, budgets, and whether the transfer station should be open longer hours. We see how you interact with people under a modicum of pressure. You demonstrate that you have both a pulse and a passing familiarity with the town’s challenges.

Local government is the most intimate form of democracy we have. Select boards decide how our roads are maintained, how our taxes are spent, how our communities grow (or don’t). This isn’t cable news theater. This is potholes and property taxes. It’s as real as it gets.

The least we should expect—the absolute bare minimum—is that someone seeking the public’s trust doesn’t mind meeting the public. After all, candidates might even learn a thing or two from voters.

I fear that the whole reasoning behind this is the catch-all excuse of “we live in a polarized society.” Ok, so if you believe that, then wouldn’t you want to do everything you could to show people we reject that polarization in our home towns? I sure as hell do.

I am truly grateful for anyone who steps into the role of public office. It’s a hard job that pays peanuts.  But candidates–all candidates–would be wise to remember that these local positions are not affiliated with any political party. There is no primary. There is no “R” or “D” after a candidate’s name on the ballot. It’s just their name.

I am not advocating for one candidate or another. I’m advocating for a better process. The voters deserve the opportunity to learn what kind of person you are, how you listen to us (or don’t), and what ideas you have to make our lives just a little better. That’s true democracy, and it begins–and ends–right here at home.

–Boit is the publisher and editor of The Rising Tide. He lives in Penobscot.

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