There is a special election in Portsmouth in November for mayor. Eight people have filed, and are making the rounds to introduce themselves to the voters. I get a lot of emails and phone calls from candidates and campaigns in the region. One email I received recently disturbed me.
Apparently, one of the mayoral candidates called a civic league president in order to verify that the group was meeting on a given night. The candidate was basically turned away, as the civic league had already met with one of the other candidates and had already decided – without meeting any of the other seven – to support that candidate.
I have no way of knowing – nor did the email writer know – if this decision was that of the entire civic league or of the president of the league. Regardless of who, it seems they do not understand nor respect our democracy. Not that I’m surprised, mind you, just disappointed. While I have witnessed such groups denying anyone other than their candidate of choice to speak to their members, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a group turning away candidates.
That isn’t democracy, folks, and you’re doing both yourselves and your members a disservice when you engage in such behavior.
I hope the civic league rethinks its position and opens its doors to all of the candidates.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
“No-bid” contracts for public improvements and single-candidate elections are very bad ideas. To practice democracy, we need contrasting opinions and competing perspectives. Thanks for shining a light into this dark corner.