It is with great disappointment that the League of Women Voters of El Dorado, Placer, Nevada, Plumas, and Sacramento Counties will be unable to hold a candidate forum for the District 3 California Congressional race due to lack of participation.
The five regional League chapters recently collaborated to invite incumbent Congressman Kevin Kiley (R) and contender Jessica Morse (D) to participate in the candidate forum to be held in El Dorado Hills. Although Morse responded that she would participate, Kiley did not respond by the August 19 deadline. The candidates were invited by email, phone, and tracked letter. Both candidates were also reminded about the invitation and upcoming response deadline via email and phone. By League rules, a forum with just one candidate cannot be held.
“We were hoping that a candidate forum organized by five regional League chapters representing 350,000 voters would be compelling to both of the District 3 candidates, but only one responded and we are not able to pull it off,” said Jan Bedayn, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Nevada County and organizer of the collaboration. “This would have been a terrific service to the voters, and would have served the candidates well. It’s too bad.”
“Each chapter will organize many other candidate forums in their areas,” said Bedayn, “and of course each chapter will continue to work hard to register voters and disseminate non-partisan information so that voters can cast informed votes in November.”