Controversial candidate interviews edited down
Controversial questions about marital history, belief in a supreme being and the Catholic Church’s handling of the abuse scandal are trimmed. Instead, Cambridge Chamber of Commerce interviews with municipal election candidates stick to more traditional ground in the edited form now posted online.
Reasons for running. Record of community service. Most challenging aspect of the political office sought. Qualifications to manage a multimillion dollar budget. A plea to citizens for their vote. Those are repeated topics of the edited and posted interviews.
Backlash from some candidates, who felt some of the more personal questions asked were inappropriate or offensive, erupted a month ago as interviews were recorded by the chamber with interviewer John Wright. Other candidates had no problem with the line of questioning.
“While we heard loud and clear the concerns around our line of questioning, the main issue is that the video interviews we conducted are simply too long,” a statement posted on the chamber website read. “Most are in excess of 40 minutes each.”
In the end, 28 candidates for city and regional council appear in the 50 chamber video segments posted to YouTube last week. The longest segment is about 11 minutes. The shortest is 27 seconds.
Ten candidates, by the chamber’s count, declined to be interviewed. Eight candidates asked that their interviews not be shared. One candidate’s interview had audio issues and could not be rescheduled, the chamber says.
The Record sought comment from chamber president Greg Durocher on Wednesday. Phone and email messages were not immediately returned.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the most-viewed segment, involving regional chair candidates, had 94 views. Eight of the segments had fewer than 10 views. The municipal election is Monday. The chamber says its goal in producing the videos was to increase voter turnout.
“We want to help you get to know the candidates,” the chamber statement read. “We’ve now made the interviews shorter so that they make the impact we set out to make with this effort in the first place.”