I have seen and been involved in a lot of debates over candidate debates during the past several years here in Millstone, but I have never seen candidates refuse to debate based on the excuse that the League of Woman Voters (LOWV) is a biased group. Pretty much everyone, including Republicans, Democrats, Independents and Libertarians, recognize that the LOWV sets the standard for nonpartisan debate moderators.

As usual, Elias Abilheira and Nancy Grbelja enthusiastically agreed to debate because they have proven records of accomplishment that they can be proud of. I can fully understand why Mr. [William] Nurko and Mr. [John] Pfefferkorn don't want to debate. They have horrible records, flip flop on the issues, are funded by developer special interests and quite honestly don't want to be forced to answer the hard questions in public.

The simple facts remains, Abilheira's and Grbelja's records deserve your vote and they respect you enough to be willing to debate. Not the case with Mr. Nurko and Mr. Pfefferkorn, who have so little respect for you that they refuse to debate and insult you further by using the lame excuse that the LOWV are biased. It's very interesting that during Mr. Nurko's last campaign, he and his running mate insisted on debating the two rookie Republicans; how times change.

It is not the moderator's fault that Bill and John have no answers to the hard questions like why they mishandled the town's finances and open space program.

It is not the moderator's fault that Elias can show how he moved our tax dollars to earn better interest returns, changed our zoning to bring in the first real commercial ratables, and now has plans to save more tax dollars by going solar.

It is not the moderator's fault Nancy has worked hard to get COAH housing built and helped with our trail systems.

These things are just the truth. Nancy and Elias deserve your vote because they respect you enough to be willing to debate the issues so that you can decide who the best candidates are.

Diane Morelli

Millstone Township Republican County Executive Committee