I apologize to all the chickens in Salem for lumping you in with Mayor Julie Hoy, but “chickened out” just seemed like the best way to describe Hoy failing to agree to debate city councilor Vanessa Nordyke at a Town Hall event sponsored by the Salem Reporter.
As described in the email message below that Salem Reporter editor and owner Les Zaitz sent to subscribers yesterday (I’m a subscriber), every other candidate for the four city council seats and the mayor position that will be voted on in the May election has agreed to participate in the event.
Julie Hoy is the only candidate who isn’t taking part in the Town Hall. That’s why it makes sense to say she chickened out. Here’s the message from Zaitz.
Good morning!
And we’re off!
Salem Reporter’s Town Hall on city races is a go, scheduled for Tuesday, March 31.
The participants are set.
All eight candidates for Salem City Council have agreed to join us. That includes challengers Manny Martinez, Betsy Vega, Chris Cummings and Dave Inbody. Also joining in are four incumbent councilors seeking another term – Linda Nishioka, Mai Vang, Deanna Gwyn and Micki Varney.
Of the two declared candidates for mayor, one has committed – Vanessa Nordyke, executive director of CASA of Marion County and a city councilor.
Only one person seeking your vote in city races in May won’t be at the Elsinore Theatre that night in March – Julie Hoy, the restaurant owner and incumbent mayor.
As I shared a few days ago, we sent identical invitations to all the candidates. We gave them two weeks to consider participating in this public forum – and asking to let us know if they needed more time. The deadline was Friday.
Hoy didn’t turn us down.
She simply didn’t acknowledge the invitation. In plain terms, she blew us off.
We’ll let you and others judge that behavior.
Meantime, start thinking of questions you’d like us to ask the one candidate for mayor who will be on stage with Salem Reporter’s crew. We’ll be quizzing Nordyke about her experience, her actions as a councilor and her intentions as mayor.
Send your questions to me at les@salemreporter.com.
Hoy’s chickening out makes it even more likely that what I said in the title of a blog post ten days ago is true: “Julie Hoy is acting like she doesn’t want to be reelected as Salem mayor.” Her supporters must be demoralized by Hoy passing up a chance to get free publicity for her reelection campaign by participating in the Salem Reporter Town Hall.
A mayor who is so uncaring about being reelected shows that they’ve lost interest in holding that position. If Nordyke defeats Hoy in the May 19 primary election by winning 50% of the vote plus one, it seems to me there’s a good chance Hoy will resign rather than carry on through the lengthy “lame duck” period between May 2026 and January 2027, when winning candidates take office.
(I also want to apologize to the ducks of Salem for associating them with Mayor Hoy.)
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