Mendham Township Committee Candidates Debate Over Debate

MENDHAM, NJ — With the General Election less than a month away, the four candidates for Mendham Township’s Committee have not yet agreed to terms on a debate.

After an uncontested primary, with a contested General Election ahead, the candidates are now contested on what their debate plans should be.

At the heart of the issue is a moderation offer from the League of Women voters, a nonpartisan group that has hosted forums and debates during election season for decades.

Incumbents Mayor Sarah Neibart and Deputy Mayor Nick Monaghan, both Republicans, said they would like to negotiate terms of a debate with Democratic contenders, Meredith Sahi and Eric Inglis and not take the League up on their offer.

Monaghan and Neibart assert that they have been willing to meet with Sahi and Inglis at their convenience but the two, “have consistently refused to negotiate the terms of a debate" with them.

In 2018, Monaghan and Neibart said they participated in a debate with their then-Democratic opponents, that they all agreed upon, which was a locally-moderated event, with questions submitted by the public. That debate was hosted by Mendham's Rotary, with a borough resident who is an attorney and coach of Mendham High School's Mock Trial Club, they said.

“Neibart and Monaghan have offered no less than three times to come to agreement to debate the issues, which we believe is a benefit to the community, but have consistently been rebuffed by the Democrats,” Monaghan and Neibart wrote in a statement to Patch.

Lauren Spirig, Sahi and Inglis' campaign manager, told Patch that Monaghan and Neibart have misrepresented their exchanges with Sahi and Inglis, bringing up an email exchange that was sparked by Barb Kuppersmith of the League of Women Voters. Kuppersmith contacted them all on Sept. 3, Inglis and Sahi agreeing to the debate.

“Our opponents are fully aware of our interest in holding a public forum to discuss issues of importance to the community,” Spirig wrote. “This has not yet occurred simply because Nick and Sarah are unwilling to utilize the services of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, which is hosting local candidate forums throughout Morris County. While many residents have already voted, we remain prepared to debate Nick and Sarah to talk about local issues.”

Spirig claimed that Monaghan and Neibart believe the League is a partisan organization and said the two would like to debate with "apparently untrained and presently unknown persons.” The Rotary was the only option in 2018, according to Spirig, with "candidates forced to pick an alternate moderator," after she said Monaghan and Neibart turned down the opportunity for a League of Women Voters forum.

After she was asked by Patch, Spirig said neither she nor the two candidates are affiliated with the League of Women voters.

Monaghan told Patch that Kuppersmith told him during their phone call after the email exchange among candidates, a member of the League of Women Voters from Mendham Township had invited the League to moderate a forum among the candidates.

“Our campaign was not involved with that invitation nor were we consulted in advance,” Monaghan said. “Our opponents are demanding a specific forum .We have simply and repeatedly asked that the two campaigns negotiate the details of the forum.”

And that is not out of the question, according to Spirig.

“We are willing to meet with Nick and Sarah to explore their ideas if they have definitively rejected the invitation that we accepted from the League of Women Voters,” Spirig said.

So if the candidates stop debating about the debate, Mendham Township residents might get to hear from them after all.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.