Emerson Levy, an attorney running to represent House District 53 said she had been “excited” to speak to the business community at the event on Wednesday evening.
“I was excited to talk to the business community at the Bend Chamber event, instead my opponent got all of the tickets,” Levy wrote in a tweet. “Every time I spoke grown women heckled me when I stood to speak and while I spoke.”
Levy added that her opponent, Michael Sipe, “mocked me, my profession and my age.”
In another tweet, Levy said: “I’m ready to do the work of the people. I’m disappointed we weren’t able to have robust conversation about how we can serve the business community and certainly not a good night for democracy.”
Newsweek has reached out to Levy, Sipe and the Bend Chamber of Commerce for further comment.
The Central Oregon Daily News reported about the event, but did not mention any instances of heckling.
According to the newspaper’s report, Levy and Sipe answered questions on various topics, including answers about how they would support job creation and relieve traffic congestion.
A video of the event in the newspaper’s report included a brief clip of Levy sharing her views on how to ease traffic congestion. Heckling could not be heard in that clip.
Eileen Kiely, the vice chair of the Deschutes County Democrats, questioned why the newspaper’s report did not include information about disruptive behavior at the event.
“CO Daily reported on this as though it was just a normal Chamber forum,” Kiely wrote in a tweet.
“Why did you hide the behavior of the audience, when you yourself had to address it in the forum? By ignoring this, you just told them their behavior is OK. @BendChamber, will you do better?”
In another tweet, she added: “It wasn’t the chamber that whitewashed the crowd’s behavior, it was @CODaily, when their own anchor was there and admonished the crowd personally. By ignoring this behavior, they embolden the bad actors.”
Newsweek has reached out to Kiely and the Central Oregon Daily News for comment.
Others on Twitter criticized the behavior and called out the event’s moderators for not doing more to stop it.
“I hold my classrooms to a higher moderator standard than this and @BendChamber should for its forums too,” tweeted Ariel Méndez, a candidate for Bend City Council who teaches at Oregon State University-Cascades.
In response to a Twitter user who criticized organizers, Levy wrote: “I really don’t blame the chamber—they didn’t know the audience was all for one person, they made the forum more available to the community.”
