by Courtney H. Naliboff

The cameraman who taped the June 30 debate between the state representative candidates for 26th Middlesex District seat, told The Somerville News his errors caused the loss of debate’s last 10 minutes.

“Toomey accused Progressive Democrats of withholding the tape that is not the case,” said Eric Weltman, a Progressive Democrat involved in filming and producing two debates between David R. Slavitt, R, Avi Green, D, and the incumbent State Rep. Timothy J. Toomey Jr., D-Somerville. The first debate was sponsored by this paper.

Simple errors and lack of preparation caused volunteers to incompletely tape recent debates between the politicians, he said.

“Nothing nefarious was intended by the Progressives’ failure to tape Slavitt’s opening remarks in one instance, and Toomey’s closing remarks in another,” he said.

“We’re all volunteers. I didn’t miss Slavitt’s opening remarks because I have anything against Republicans, I missed it because I’d never filmed anything before,” said Weltman.

Weltman forgot to turn the camera on, he said.

The second debate, which Weltman said he helped organize, was filmed by another volunteer, he said. “She had only brought one one-hour long tape, that’s why the ending wasn’t filmed.”

“It had nothing to do with Toomey,” he said.

Weltman said he thought arrangements to distribute the debate tapes to community access channels had never been made, and said he attributed it to the volunteer-run nature of the Progressive Democrats.
It was unfair to read more into the mistake than there is, he said.