I think it’s important for the residents of Ward 6 to know exactly why I opted out of participating in a hastily organized, last-minute debate this weekend.

On Wednesday morning at 10:30 am, my campaign received an email from a person I’ve never met or heard of before, inviting me to participate in an eleventh hour all candidate’s debate on Saturday. The invite provided only 90 minutes to confirm our participation. The sender informed the candidates that the debate would be moderated by a person named “Brian Lee”.

Brian Lee is the brother of Bruce Lee (no relation to the film star). Bruce is Jeff Davison’s campaign manager. Jeff and I are currently running against each other along with six other candidates in a hotly contested election campaign.

As soon as I received the email invitation, my campaign immediately reached out to the organizer with a series of questions about the organizing committee, moderator and debate structure. This person provided only vague and partial answers to our questions.

In my opinion, this was an attempt by people with a vested interest in the outcome of the election to influence the election a mere two days before the vote.  Even attempting to organize a debate where the moderator has close ties to one of the candidates' campaigns is a clear conflict of interest.

Consequently, I decided not to participate in the debate. Other Ward 6 candidates also raised concerns about the organization of the debate. We've now been informed that the debate will not be going ahead.

This Saturday I’ll be doing what I’ve been doing every Saturday for the past 7 months: knocking on doors and earning your vote. I look forward to meeting you on your doorstep soon.

Sincerely,

Esmahan