The Candidates spoke last night at the first Candidate Forum of the election season. The room was decorated with Obama signs and Save Our Reverse Osmosis signs on all sides. It was packed with enthusiastic supporters of their candidates. The Mayor and Commissioner Golden were there but I did not spot Retha Lowe. Everyone had their ears opened to what each and every candidate had to say. The questions that were prepared in advance by Club officers/directors Jim Kelly, Herman Robinson and our Club President, Harvey Millstein and asked by a former candidate in District 4, Barbara Aubel, did not seem to follow the letter that was sent out to the Candidates and were unclear to a few. But, all in all it was a good night.
There was no clear winner in either District in my opinion. It’s a toss up as to whom got their points across best and who convinced the best.
Cara did a great job presenting her accomplishments. I have to give John Jordan a lot of credit at age 82. He was on point with what he wanted to talk about and he is always someone I like to listen to as he tells it honestly, taking no prisoners. My favorite line of the night was Mary Lindsey’s when she said that Jennings has had her time…”the only Ordinance she got passed was against the Iraqi War and that’s still going on.” Great jab. Slam dunk.
District 4 was interesting but not as much as District 2. Mulvehill, the motivational speaker, got in some of her motivational bullet points: “empower the people,” “listen and respond.” It sounded like she has helped everyone out there to be a success. Varela stayed on point and underplayed his accomplishments. Vespo gave his campaign rhetoric. One totally amazing thing he said last night when asked about the Commission interacting with the various Boards and neighborhood associations was “we almost disbanded the CRA due to a communication gap.” Doubts about Dave are getting more prevalent every day.
I am looking forward to the next forum. What about you?
