WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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A Republican candidate is dropping out of a public forum, hosted by Black Lives Matter Bloomington.
Jacob Franklin, a candidate for Monroe Circuit Court clerk, announced in a public statement last night that he wouldn’t be participating in “A Seat at the Table”: Bloomington Black Lives Matter’s Midterm Candidate Round-Table Discussion. The public forum takes place tomorrow.
Franklin says he feels the conversation wouldn’t be focused on the office he’s running for, based on a questionnaire Bloomington Black Lives Matter sent out to candidates, ahead of the primaries in May.
“There really was no way for me to have a discussion about the office based on those questions, so there couldn’t be a dialogue no matter how I tried to spin it back into the clerk’s office,” he said. “If Black Lives Matter would like to meet me in the middle and discuss what I can do for the office to ensure that are people are treated equally, then I’ve got no problem doing that.”
Every candidate who responded to the May questionnaire was asked the same 18 questions about how their desired role would relate to social justice in Bloomington. All but one of the 17 respondents wrote out lengthy answers.
Franklin instead answered every single question with the same response: “Not applicable to the Clerk of Monroe Circuit Court.” He gave that answer 18 times in a row. Based on that questionnaire, he says he thinks tomorrow’s discussion would be off topic.
Franklin, who the first Republican candidate to RSVP for the round table discussions, didn’t contact Black Lives Matter Bloomington directly in his withdrawal, instead sending out his public statement at 9:54 p.m. Wednesday night.
Vauhxx Booker, a leader of Bloomington Black Lives Matter, says the late night move was disappointing.
“Disingenuous would be the term. He’s gone through several confirmation emails and never indicated that he was not attending,” he said. “Even when his name was published on the schedule, he still made no indication that he wasn’t adamantly involved.”
He ends the statement by saying that racism and sexism are created when differences between people are defined.
“I do and will, whenever I take an oath of office, understand that I serve all people, all citizens within Monroe County,” he said. “I look forward to doing that impartially and with integrity and non-judgmentally.”
Booker says Franklin’s reasoning is flawed.
“I found it very disturbing that he would invoke colorblindness as a defense to not participating,” Booker said. “If we don’t acknowledge the problem that our society has, we can’t actively develop solutions to fix them.”
Franklin will be replaced in the roundtable discussions by Thomasina Marsili, a Democrat candidate running in District 46 of the Indiana House against incumbent Bob Heaton.
“A Seat at the Table”: Midterm Candidate Round-Table Discussions will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 2120 N Fee Lane starting tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m.
