NORTHAMPTON — Three candidates for City Council declined to participate in forums co-sponsored by Northampton Abolition Now this week, citing the fact that the group has endorsed their opponents, and NAN responded by saying that the candidates’ complaints are a “smokescreen for maintaining a white supremacist status quo.”
Ward 1 candidate Stanley Moulton, Ward 3 incumbent James Nash and at-large candidate Marissa Elkins said their decisions not to participate in a series of forums on Wednesday and Thursday nights were based on NAN’s endorsements of Lemy Coffin in Ward 1, David Kris in Ward 3 and Jamila Gore for one of two at-large seats.
The endorsements were reported by the Gazette on Tuesday. The forums, sponsored by NAN and the organization Western Mass Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), proceeded with only half of the 10 City Council candidates in contested races; in addition to the three who declined to attend, two others — Ward 4 candidate Garrick Perry and at-large candidate David Murphy — said they had scheduling conflicts.
Nash wrote to organizers that the forums appeared to be intended “so NAN can showcase its slate of candidates,” and said “it troubles me” that the original co-sponsor, Racial Equity And Learning (REAL) Northampton, was replaced by NAN.
Nash and Moulton released a joint statement saying that they independently chose not to join the forums.
“Our suspicion that there would not be a level playing field was confirmed Tuesday in an email distributed by NAN that publicly endorsed our opponents while making the outlandish claim that our decision not to attend its partisan event is evidence that our own ‘white privilege deserves protection more than the pursuit of a racially just society,’” the joint statement reads. “White privilege is real, but to weaponize language to attack those who are trying to engage in a learning journey for racial justice further corrodes the important public conversation on this topic.”
Northampton Abolition Now advocates for a reallocation of 50% of the Police Department budget to social services, including the new Department of Community Care. The email referenced by Nash and Moulton was sent to NAN supporters.
Before advertising the forums and lodging criticism against Nash and Moulton for declining to attend, the email reads, “Our only shot at electing a progressive City Council that will actually work to divest from policing, rather than performing the same old status-quo liberalism, is through community connections. Please share this email and spread the word about” Gore, Coffin, Kris, Ward 4 candidate Jesse Hassinger and City Councilor Rachel Maiore, who is running unopposed for reelection in Ward 7.
Hassinger, who joined the Thursday night forum, is facing Perry for the Ward 4 seat. Perry said he was unable to participate, but once he heard about the controversy surrounding the endorsements, he said that NAN appears to have “put their finger on the scale.”
At Thursday’s forum, NAN volunteer Robert Eastman read portions of the statement released in response to the candidates dropping out.
“I previously accepted an invitation to participate in a forum on Wednesday hosted by REAL and Western Mass SURJ,” Elkins wrote to organizers. “Now that REAL is no longer hosting and has been replaced by an organization which has already endorsed candidates, I must respectfully decline to attend. As a Northampton Public School parent, I will be attending the annual REAL zoom meeting which is scheduled for the same time.”
In a statement to the Gazette, Elkins said, “I never accepted an invitation to a forum hosted by NAN. … This is my first political campaign, but it seemed dishonest to me and no other forum I have participated in had involved previously endorsed candidates or [made] unannounced changes in the hosting organizations.”
In its own statement, NAN defended making endorsements before co-hosting ostensibly impartial forums.
“NAN would be thrilled to endorse additional candidates who demonstrate that they stand by our values,” the statement reads. “NAN hopes that one day we can endorse every single candidate running for office, because that will mean our community has developed a strong consensus in favor of racial justice.”
NAN said that all candidates received the questions in advance, along with links to online resources designed to help them understand the questions.
“All candidates would have had the opportunity to respond to these same questions without any editorial interventions from NAN organizers. In our view, this approach to the forum demonstrated clearly our commitment to open dialogue inclusive of all candidates,” the group’s statement reads.
NAN also took issue with the candidates’ participating in forums focused on climate change and the needs of seniors, but not racial justice.
“The candidates who participated [in prior forums] did so without casting aspersions on the ‘bias,’ ‘impartiality,’ and motives” of organizers, NAN wrote. “The reason Climate Action Now and Northampton Neighbors are not seen to be biased in their agenda is that we’ve all agreed that environmental issues are a priority for the city. This is not the case when it comes to reducing the racist harm that policing causes in our city.”
Perry, a Black man, criticized NAN and other activists who focus their efforts on police reform in Northampton rather than Springfield, saying the groups “never show their faces where they’re really needed.” He said that alienating certain candidates, and hearing from only those that the group has endorsed, risks creating “an echo chamber.”
Wednesday night’s forum featured two of the four at-large candidates: incumbent Ward 1 City Councilor Michael Quinlan and Gore, a writer and activist who placed first in the Sept. 28 preliminary election. Elkins did not participate, and candidate David Murphy said he could not attend due to a scheduling conflict.
Reached by the Gazette on Thursday, Murphy said he was working with organizers to find another way to participate in the discussion around racial equity. NAN said it invited Murphy, Elkins, Moulton and Nash to answer questions in writing.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.