If Little Compton residents want to learn more about their candidates for local office, it looks like they will have to attend two separate political forums.

Little Compton Republicans have declined an invitation to attend a candidates’ forum planned for Thursday, Oct. 17 at the Little Compton Community Center, and instead will hold their own this coming Monday, Oct. 7. Meanwhile, an original non-partisan forum initially organized by the Rhode Island League of Women Voters and other organizations, and to be moderated by East Bay Media Group’s Scott Pickering, will go on as planned later this month, with only Democratic candidates expected. Democrats are not expected to attend Monday’s GOP-organized forum.

Christine Stenning, the president of the League of Women Voters of Newport County and organizer of the forum scheduled for Oct. 17, said the non-partisan league has withdrawn from the Oct. 17 forum as it and other sponsoring organizations (AARP and the Newport County Chamber of Commerce) are restricted from sponsoring forums at which only one political party is represented.

Though he did not respond to multiple requests for comment, Stenning said Michael Rocha, Little Compton’s Republican Town Committee chairman, gave her two reasons why Republican candidates chose not to attend.

First, she said, Rocha told her that Republicans believe the community needs to know about the candidates before early voting begins. Secondly, she said, he told her that Pickering, general manager of the East Bay Media Group, which publishes the Sakonnet Times, was not someone they trusted. Stenning said Rocha called Pickering “liberal and biased.”

In her response to Rocha, Stenning said the moderator is simply the talking head asking the questions at the forum. All questions are also vetted and written in a non-partisan way, and she rejected the idea of bias at any forum held by the League of Women Voters.

Stenning said days are spent refining questions posed by the community so they sound non-partisan, and added that the league’s role as an organization is to provide the community with a sense of non-partisanship and a shared voice of reason in forums.

Travis Auty, Little Compton’s Democratic Town Committee chairman, confirmed that Democrat candidates will attend the forum on Oct. 17 because they committed to that date before the Republican forum was announced.

This is likely to be the second consecutive election cycle in which the Sakonnet Times hosts a forum attended by only one party. In 2022, a similar candidates’ forum drew only Democrats, as Republican candidates chose to not participate.

“As someone who attended the forum in 2022, I can absolutely tell you the questions were tough,” Auty said. “They were questions that could be submitted by our community, both leading up to the forum and then the night of, and I have no information [on the Oct. 7 forum]. Their advertisement doesn’t seem to indicate that questions can be posed from the community.”

Pickering said he doesn’t believe holding two forums in Little Compton is good for the community, because residents don’t get the best view of the candidates, when they have a chance to interact together.

In response to the accusation that he is “liberal and biased,” Pickering said, “I have never been notified of anything specific that would lead to the conclusion that we’re unfair, not truthful, or biased in some way against the Republicans of Little Compton.”

To Pickering, what is most frustrating and insulting is that the non-partisan League of Women Voters, whom he has worked with for the last 20 years, were not trusted by Republicans to run a fair, impartial, and equitable forum for all candidates.

Though the League of Women Voters chose to withdraw, the Sakonnet Times opted to continue forward and hold the Oct. 17 forum on its own.