Recently, I made the decision, together with my Republican running mates, Councilman Ken Rothwell and Councilman Bob Kern, that we would not participate in certain candidate forums hosted and administered by the Heart of Riverhead Civic Association and the Greater Jamesport Civic Association. While we certainly believe in open debate and political discourse as a crucial and necessary part of the election process, we also believe wholeheartedly that the debates should be hosted by a nonpartisan, unbiased entity.
The president of the Greater Jamesport Civic Association is Laura Jens-Smith, former Democratic supervisor and current chairwoman of the Riverhead Democratic Committee. The Heart of Riverhead president is Cindy Clifford, a committeeperson for the Riverhead Democratic Committee and a former employee in Jens-Smith’s administration when she was supervisor. A debate hosted by these civics is inherently biased, and the appearance of impropriety is unavoidable, as we have seen in the past.
Our national presidential elections are moderated by professional journalists tasked with generating questions in a nonpartisan manner — never by the leaders or committee members of any political party. Moreover, presidential candidates typically only engage in one or two national debates, yet we, as political candidates on the local level, were being told we had to do no fewer than three debates.
Councilman Rothwell, Councilman Kern and I are currently in office, which means we are busy conducting the town’s business on a daily basis and are available to the public whenever any resident has questions for us. The taxpayers deserve our attention and time to be spent doing our jobs to the best of our abilities so that Riverhead can thrive. Moreover, the demand by Jens-Smith that we submit to at least three debates is absurd when it was proposed instead that a nonpartisan, unbiased local journalist conduct and moderate a debate at Polish Hall.
It was my hope that residents of this town could submit questions or topics of interest to this journalist to help shape the questions he would be asking of all of the candidates at the debate. Jens-Smith immediately rejected that idea and insisted that the civic groups of her choosing, at the dates and times of her selection, would be the only debates her Democratic candidates would participate in. This is simply unreasonable.
My running mates and I are happy to answer honest questions from neutral third parties who do not have political skin in the game, but we will not subject ourselves to political gamesmanship at the behest of the opposing team. So, will we be debating? Yes, and happily so. Will we bow down to unreasonable demands and unnecessary political bias? No, we will not.
Quite frankly, I would submit that the helm of any civic association should not be a chairperson or committee member of either political party, since these civics are intended to operate in a nonpartisan fashion as they gather to address issues of concern or interest within the town.
In conclusion, we look forward to hearing the questions posed to us by the Greater Calverton Civic Association and the Wading River Civic Association on Oct. 16, 2025, at 7 p.m. at Riley Avenue Elementary School.
Please note: Any resident from Riverhead may submit questions or topics they wish to see addressed at the debate by emailing GCCA1992@gmail.com (Greater Calverton Civic Association) and WRCivic@optonline.net (Wading River Civic Association). The debate questions will not be limited to issues involving Calverton and Wading River.
Tim Hubbard is a Republican running for re-election as Riverhead Town Supervisor.