The League of Women Voters of Clark County has been hosting candidate forums each election cycle for more than a decade. The nonpartisan nonprofit says the forums connect candidates with voters, help educate people on issues and offer the chance to ask questions to candidates directly.
Recently though, two candidates declined to participate in the forums over concerns about the event format and that the League is no longer truly nonpartisan.
The two candidates are Bryan Shull, who is challenging incumbent Glen Yung for the Clark County Council District 1 seat, and District 2 Councilor Michelle Belkot, who is running for reelection. Belkot is running against challenger John Zingale.
“Last night, I heard candidates describe their ideas in persuasive ways and that’s what the League is all about,” Tracy Reilly Kelly, president of the Clark County chapter, said in an interview Thursday. “The League of Women Voters is interested in offering educational resources so that people can vote and that good governance is the result.”
In an editorial published on Clark County Today’s website, Shull said candidates’ allotted one minute to respond simply isn’t enough time, adding that residents deserve real answers.
“What I encountered instead was a format limited to sound bites of a minute or less, which cannot possibly address problems of this complexity,” he wrote.
Kelly said candidates have followed this format for years without issue. While candidates are limited to one minute during certain portions of the forums, they’re given more time during other segments, she said.
“The timing is a fair way to make sure that each of the candidates is able to speak to the questions and issues,” she said. “We also offer them time at the end specifically for anything that we haven’t covered.”
Shull said while promoting itself as a nonpartisan group, the League’s members and leaders openly — and only — promote left-wing positions. He said the group has published letters “vilifying legal and necessary immigration enforcement,” participated in No Kings and anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency protests and urged voters to pressure local officials to support immigrant rights.
“These are not neutral civic activities. They are clear political advocacy,” Shull wrote.
Kelly said it’s not only Democrats or others aligned with the left who are opposed to ICE enforcement activities or Trump administration policies. She also said being a nonpartisan group doesn’t mean its members are nonpolitical.
“Being political means engaging with civic life, with public policy,” she said. “Our distinction is that we are nonpartisan on candidates and parties, and unapologetically political on issues that are important.”
Former county Councilor Eileen Quiring O’Brien, now running for the county auditor’s position, voiced concerns similar to Shull’s on her campaign website. In a Sept. 22 post, O’Brien said the nonpartisan “mask slipped entirely” once the list of topics for a candidate forum the next day was provided by the League of Women Voters. Instead of addressing fundamental issues, such as the independent audit O’Brien wants to conduct if elected and the need to scrub and update voter registration rolls, O’Brien said the League of Women Voters focused on a hyper technical, insider agenda designed as a trap.
Rather than decline the invite, the post said O’Brien “made a strategic decision to step into the room anyway. Instead of ignoring their political setup, (O’Brien) is choosing to participate directly — using their own stage to expose their extreme partisanship and hold the establishment accountable in front of the cameras.”
Shull, Belkot and O’Brien have not responded to The Columbian’s requests for interviews.
Kelly said the League’s local chapter will continue to focus on its mission to advocate for free, fair and open elections, a mission set by the national group when it was founded in 1920.
“Our founders believed that voters deserve issue-based information — even when it counters their views about a candidate or party,” she said.
Too often, Kelly said, those issues are framed in partisan terms, isolating voters and candidates from those with differing viewpoints. She said reaching across the political divide is worth the effort.
“Our form of government is beautiful, fantastic, worthy, and we all believe in it,” she said.