Julie Hoy shows her fear of Vanessa Nordyke by refusing a mayoral debate

Mayor Julie Hoy is breaking new ground in Salem politics. Unfortunately for Hoy, that fresh dirt isn’t making her look good.

As noted in “Salem Mayor Julie Hoy is guilty of orchestrating an ethics violation, but has the delusion she did nothing wrong,” Hoy refuses to admit what is plainly visible: that she was the ringleader of prohibited private conversations with city councilors regarding the city manager’s employment status that ran afoul of Oregon’s public meetings law.

Usually local elected officials apologize for ethics violations, vowing they have learned from their mistake and won’t do it again. But Hoy persists in her absurd contention that the Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigation was flawed, because she feels she did nothing wrong.

Mayor Hoy also feels that she shouldn’t take the Salem Reporter up on their offer to have Hoy and Councilor Vanessa Nordyke, her challenger in the May mayoral election, engage in a televised community debate like the one held in 2024 at the Elsinore Theater. This also is a first, so far as I know. Almost always local political candidates jump at the chance to get their message widely publicized at no cost to their campaign.

Of course, this assumes that a candidate has a coherent message. I have to assume that Hoy is afraid that Nordyke will point out that the major isn’t wearing any messaging clothes, thereby demonstrating Hoy’s policy nakedness.

A January 22 Salem Reporter story by Joe Siess, “Salem Reporter won’t host free mayoral debate after mayor doesn’t respond to invitation,” says:

Salem Reporter will not host a mayoral debate in the spring after Salem Mayor Julie Hoy didn’t respond to an offer to participate in the free and televised event by a deadline this week.

The event would have been in the same format as the event hosted by the media outlet in 2024, when Hoy debated her predecessor, former Salem Mayor Chris Hoy, who is of no relation, at the Elsinore Theatre.

Salem Reporter sent Hoy and her opponent, Salem City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke, an invitation on Jan. 19 to debate at a mutually-agreeable time. Nordyke accepted the offer on Jan. 20.

The two candidates debated each other earlier this month in an event hosted by the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce. The questions asked at the chamber debate were largely oriented to the concerns of Salem’s business community and attendees had to pay $45 for entry to the lunch.

…Nordyke told Salem Reporter in a text message Thursday that Salem needs a mayor who won’t shy away from answering questions at an open debate. She pointed out Hoy’s participation in Salem Reporter’s last mayoral debate in 2024.

“The mayor is accountable to the people of Salem, not just their donors. Salem deserves a mayor who is not responsive only to certain groups, or only accessible to those who can afford to pay an entry fee,” Nordyke said. “This is a much larger problem than Mayor Hoy’s refusal to participate in this one debate. Over the past year, the office of mayor has been the least transparent resource in city government.”

So Hoy is fine with debating Nordyke in a private business-oriented venue attended only by people able and willing to pay $45. But appearing in a free televised community debate, no way. Hoy must be really afraid of Nordyke. In an update to the Salem Reporter story, we learn Hoy’s lame excuse for not accepting the debate invitation.

Mayor Julie Hoy responded to Salem Reporter via email Thursday evening, saying her lack of response to the debate request was not a refusal to participate in the debate, and was because she was “juggling other requests.” She also said she would not provide a definitive answer at this time and was exploring a fully virtual forum with other local news outlets.

“The event your organization hosted in the last mayoral race, did not, in my opinion, offer a fair playing field,” Hoy said. “The moderators did not keep the atmosphere collegial or conducive to a fair exchange of ideas.”

Translation: Mayor at-the-time Chris Hoy (no relation) kicked my butt in the 2024 debate, so there’s no way I want to debate Vanessa Nordyke given that her messaging and debate skills are equal to, if not superior, to those of Chris Hoy.

The Salem Reporter now allows comments on their stories from subscribers. Great decision. Here’s my favorite comment.

“These are unfiltered appearances. They are not controlled political rallies or scripted Rotary Club speeches,” Zaitz said. “This is an opportunity for voters to judge not only how the candidates respond to questions about the issues, but how they respond to issues on the fly that come from the audience and that come from the panel. That shows knowledge of the issues, the depth of understanding and an ability to react in real time to issues that are often very pressing.” This is exactly why she will not debate. She has no knowledge of real issues of Salem residents. She is not able to answer on the fly. Exactly as Mr. Zaitz said, this style of debate would show in my opinion she has no depth of understanding of the average Salem resident. There is no way she would be able to react in real time with a good answer. My opinion is it would make her look even more stupid.