How is it advertising? All kinds of public figures do AMA's all the time, kinda the whole point is they are a way for them to interact with the populace outside of the normal bounds of advertising - remember "woody-gate" and how pissed people were when he tried to use the format to stump for his new film while answering no questions? Other mayoral candidates could (and should) do these, and they should be well publicized on subs like this, where even if Somerville residents can't vote in the election, the results still effect them in a major way. The fact that /r/boston would have removed something like this (and they possibly even did) is simply evidence that the mods there are assholes.