Thursday, September 25, 2008

Mayoral Debate Report

My take on the mayoral forum/debate staged on Tuesday night is up at Richmond.com.
The five hopefuls stood behind podiums in a second floor ballroom that comfortably swallowed up the 300 to 350 people who came to see what the men running for mayor looked like under fire, and to hear what they had to say.

The topic for the night’s talk-fest was billed as
The Future of Downtown.

After opening statements, the candidates were questioned by a trio of rather mild mannered inquisitors, seated stage left: Ed Slipek (
Style Weekly); Jimmy Barrett (1140 WRVA); Aaron Gilchrist (NBC12).

In his opening statement, Paul Goldman tossed off a couple of red meat campaign promises to the audience, “There will be no baseball stadium downtown. There will be no Echo Harbor project, either.”
Click here to read the entire piece.

2 comments:

Scott said...

Terry, again, I think you need to be more clear about your use of traditional political metaphors. Maybe its your opinion that Goldman was "throwing red meat", which traditionally means to appease, satisfy, rally, or excite one’s (political) supporters, however I would maintain his statements were ones of belief in facts given the state of the economy. Not many people are excited by the failure of the economy, but Goldman, as a leader, needed to express the reality that a lot of other candidates are ignoring.

F.T. Rea said...

Scott,

While I appreciate your efforts to make me a better writer, I don't see how anything I wrote indicated that Goldman's words were anything less than what he believes to be true.

In my Richmond.com piece on the mayoral forum, I characterized what I saw and heard in what I believe was a fair way to all five candidates.

Beyond that, without a doubt, Goldman was the most fired up of the five candidates. Although Grey wasn't nearly as entertaining as Goldman was, I'd say Goldman and Grey probably did more to win over new support than the other three.

My analysis was meant to inform and entertain. In my coverage of the mayoral race, if I let fear of criticism from partisans stifle me, well, I won't be doing the job I'm being paid to do.

Thanks for your comment.