Judge debate will be minus one candidate

Whitefish judge candidate Valarie Eve has declined to participate in tonight's public debate scheduled by the Northwest Montana Bar Association, but the event will proceed as planned.

It will begin at 7 p.m. at the O'Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish. Incumbent City Judge Bradley Johnson - the only other candidate - will attend, and a statement of Eve's position will be read.

Eve said she chose not to attend the debate because she preferred keeping her campaign "on a more personal level with the voters." She also said she felt she was "being bullied" by the bar association to participate.

"I have my campaign agenda, going door to door, and I'm not going to be bullied into this debate," she said.

Eve said she told both Whitefish attorney Michael Viscomi and bar association president Dan Wilson that she wouldn't participate, and maintained they misled the public into believing both candidates would be there.

"In fairness to the public, to the other members of the bar association and to me, Daniel Wilson should have informed the news media that I declined their invitation," she wrote in a letter to local newspapers.

Viscomi, who volunteered to help organize the debate, said organizers gave Eve a choice of three dates for the debate, but she declined to participate altogether.

When Eve called Viscomi on Oct. 2 to say she wouldn't participate, he asked her: "Are you telling me regardless of the date set, you won't attend? She said 'yes.'"

Wilson later encouraged Eve to reconsider the debate and when she again declined, he asked her to submit her written views that would be read at the event.

"We determined we wanted to make the forum available, whether she wished to attend or not," Wilson said. "I'm confused about her responses. This is a campaign for a public position. We felt that providing a public forum at no cost to voters would not be considered something to harm her campaign."

Wilson also circulated a letter to local newspapers, saying that encouraging public debate by candidates for public office "is nothing sinister or new in this country.

"Plain and simple, public debate is the foundation of democracy," he said.

Johnson, 56, was first elected city judge in November 1985 and has run unopposed ever since. He has an undergraduate degree in business from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and earned his law degree from the University of Tulsa. He later did postgraduate studies at Southern Methodist University.

Eve, 49, is a clerk at Flathead Justice Court and worked for 18 months as a clerk at Whitefish City Court. She was an appointed city judge for the cities of Conrad and Valier for 2 1/2 years and has a paralegal degree from the University of Great Falls.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com