The No Holds Barred Honest To Goodness Actual Mayoral Debate
First reaction to the Mayoral Debate tonight ... rather civilized. Unnervingly civilized, in fact. Being an unmoderated debate, one might have loved to have seen a slip up here. Picking a winner is tough, but I'll go on a limb here and call one ... Orlando Sanchez.
First off, the lack of a Michael Berry makes the average age a bit more closely grouped ... this seemed to minimize the visual of Bill White being the only grown up in the race. The fact that both Sanchez and Turner were both on their game meant there was less to contrast with, also. Sanchez appeared scripted early on, but showed a freer flowing side as the debate went on. Turner showed a little of his humorous side here and there, didn't quite stick with his feel-good schtick, and actually delved into some weighty policy debate.
I can't say anyone really lost, though. Everyone seemed to accomplish what they needed to accomplish here. The plan was for two issues to be discussed: mobility and the economy. Right off the bat, Sanchez comingles the two, stating that they are essentially one in the same. The result was that jobs and the economy never got discussed as a standalone topic. It was one hour of rail debate.
To that end, it was a healthy, positive debate. Each candidate got the knock on the opposition for inconsistencies in their plans:
That, in distilled fashion, is the entire debate. Once my DSL situation clears up (connection is a bit better, but still spotty), I'm doing homework on the HGAC plan. As is typical of political debates, the candidates got one over on each other better than they responded to the "one overs." White stuck to his pitch the longest and perhaps with most effect. He drove the $27 billion vs $640 million angle which only saw Sanchez disavow any knowledge of the $27 billion figure, yet he later owns up to a $15 billion pricetag - still without suggesting why $640 million would most certainly raise property taxes while a $27 or $15 billion plan would not.
My impression is that nobody likely lost ground tonight - helps that about a dozen people likely watched the thing. It'll come down to legwork to see who gets to a runoff, so for now it's back to the game at hand. Debating doing a little blockwalking for Bill this weekend. We'll see how I feel about that tomorrow.
UPDATE: The Chronicle report is here. It pretty much reads with the same points I make just with better quotes.