So, people want to know who won the Chamber debate. Each candidate's supporters claim their man won.
As the man who won the Chamber debate 4 years ago, I have my own opinion. I think Ron Polacco clearly won.
The first rule of any debate is to know your audience. Polacco spoke about pro business positions while Noble spoke out in favor of bicycle paths.
As a result, the majority of the Freeman coverage dealt with the bike path and that makes Noble look really bad. If an extremely liberal paper writes an article about a debate that makes a left wing candidate look bad, then that candidate lost the debate.
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9 comments:
I have to disagree with you Rich. I think they BOTH failed miserably to convince the citizens to vote for them. Not one of them is truly qualified to run and manage this city. My only hope is that Provenzano will win alderman at large as she will have to corral any one of them into leadership. Otherwise, hold your nose when you go to vote.
Good point, 11:25. "She will have to corral either one of them into leadership", ie, whichever of these birds happen to win. But here's another good point: who IS entirely qualified to run a city that is broken down, falling down, and where the roads are falling apart and the only thing politics seems to give a fig about is who gets into power and who that person brings along with them into power? It's the same old story year after year anyway. "IBM" stands for "I'd better move."
Thought Gallo did a great job the last four years. By reading these posts I guess I was wrong.
Yikes! I went to the mayoral debate at Temple Emmanuel. Polacco came across as nervous, drinking copious amount of water ( Marco Rubio ring a bell?) And then proceeded to chew the ice from his glass. Same answers over and over with a slight bit of word or vernacular change. Noble not always aware of what is happening or what has been accomplished at city hall. After all he is at the parks and rec, and of course the ZOO. But at least Noble maintained a calm and cool presence even though sometimes he was not quite sure of his position on Bringing Back Broadway issue. Straddled the fence. But then it is an election year so none of them are willing to take a stand. Was surprised that Polacco didn't go more into promoting the arts as an economic driver. He constantly said we need sustainable businesses. Hello...some of them are already here. I am almost sure he is not aware of the many types of art businesses that are here. For a guy who goes on acting auditions I would have thought he would have checked out places that cater to movies/sound, video and music. These businesses are bringing money and recognition to the city. Noble seems to have had some coaching to get thru the debate but going to need MUCH more to run a city. Most of the questions dealt with economic issues but after awhile it became boring to hear the same type of question over and over again with almost the same response from the candidates. I am seriously worried about how the city will withstand inexperience. Not comfortable with them having on the job training at such a crucial time in our city.
Throughout the debate, I found myself wondering, "do these candidates really live in Kingston?" They spoke of the arts commission as if they just learned about it yesterday; they spoke of the Broadway plan & it was clear neither of them knows about the inception & planning involved in that plan for the past 2 years; they talked about marketing Kingston...have they not seen the new visitor website and guide?? Our city events this year had tremendous turnouts because of the marketing being done already! I left feeling like I just attended a high school debate where the topic du jour was economic development...and the candidates crammed the night before to learn what economic development means & how it works!
5:49. Gallo has done a good job. He had to deal with a lot of good ole'boys undermining every decision he made. They wanted status quo and Gallo wanted to clean up the garbage and sense of entitlement in some depts. But Gallo also took it too personally. He needed to wear a coat of armor and try to ignore the naysayers from his own party. He is human and really tried to do it all. He cared about the city but in the end other democratic party members were too focused on retaining their former power. Now we are stuck with the two boobs who think they have a vision..... The problem is that both political parties are not attracting competent and altruistic individuals who really want to serve for the right reasons. The ranks are thinning. They are putting up just about anybody with a pulse or who have paid their "dues" so now they can run for public office. We as the city are not reaping benefits from that mindset.
7:17. I was waiting to see if they scribbled notes/answers on the palm of their hands or arms.. Because the answers were sophomoric.
Polocco failed the debate and Noble squeaked by by the skin of his teeth. Obvious he was coached.
The picture on the freeman website had Polocco looking at his phone like someone was texting him crib notes.
Debate goes to Noble.
I didn't even bother going to the Thursday debate, because the Tuesday morning Chamber of Commerce preview was so disappointing. Polacco talked about "new ideas" and "thinking outside the box," but didn't offer any tidbits (except removing the parking meters). Steve Noble got his ideas from Gallo (Building a Better Broadway) and Gerry Benjamin (equalization of tax rates). Election Law is all about exclusion of candidates. We should all be angry with the Democratic Committee for removing Gallo from the picture, he clearly would have swept these debates and won the election, if not excluded from the process through archaic red tape. We need reform for more candidate choices, not less.
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