Vedat Gashi Cancels Scheduled Interview With Black Westchester
If he doesn't see the need to address this issue, how can we trust he will address any of the big issues that are important to us, if we send him to Washington DC to represent us?
Candidate Vedat Gashi is the only candidate in the NY16 Congressional Race to decline an interview or cancel a scheduled interview!!!
It is Black Westchester’s policy to try to interview all the candidates in races – who want to be interviewed – so that voters can make informed decisions at the ballot box. That was the case in the very important race for Congressional District 16. We interviewed Catherine Parker, Mark Jaffe ended his candidacy before we could set up an interview and Vedat Gashi who communication consultant Yuridia Peña reached out to us the morning after our editorial Did Candidate Vadat Gashi Resort To Racial Tactics By Darken Skin Of Rep. Jamaal Bowman In Latest Mailer? ran.
She emailed Black Westchester asking to speak to us, saying they had not received an invitation for an interview. We spoke several hours later, and she scheduled Vedat for tomorrow (Tuesday, August 16th) at 6:00pm. Then today at 4:24PM a little more than 24 hours before the interview emailed us and wrote, “Unfortunately, Vedat is unable to do the interview this week.” No reason why, no request to reschedule, just he is unable to do the interview that they asked for, agreed to and scheduled.
Now I don’t know if he just doesn’t respect Black Westchester and our readers, or he purposely scheduled an interview three days after early voting started to delay a perceived Jamaal Bowman endorsement until after early voting started. Or he just doesn’t care how his mailer was perceived because he did resort to racial tactics by darken the skin on Congressman Bowman as we asked in our editorial. Either way the cancelation of the interview is unacceptable.
We received statements from the Westchester-Putnam Chapter of the Working Families Party who stated they were “outraged and disappointed at campaign tactics in attack ads mailed by the Vedat Gashi campaign targeting our endorsed candidate Congressman Jamaal Bowman,” which we did run and several other groups as well which we didn’t run. No need to beat a dead horse, he scheduled to come on and speak to this issue. Bottomline many of our readers were displeased by the mailer and were waiting his interview with Black Westchester to hear what he had to say about it. But we have to ask, does he care what they think?
Whether any or all of this was done intentional by the candidate or the communications consultant, it is an insult to Black Westchester and our audience that counts on us to inform them on the candidates, and we thought the voters of the 16th congressional district needed to know when they go out to cast their vote. If he doesn’t see the need to address this issue, how can we trust he will address any of the big issues that are important to us, if we send him to Washington DC to represent us? These are the questions that need to be asked before you cast your ballot in this very important primary.
