Monday, April 11, 2005

No show

The first three way debate opportunity tonight at the Hilton Hotel downtown turned into a two way give-and-take between Wayne Fontana, D., and myself. The new "R" was absent, unexpectedly. We even switched around the program waiting for him to show. The Mayor's race candidates went first, then came city council candidates.

Oh well.

Post debate polling score:

Mark Rauterkus = 8 out of 10.

Wayne Fontana = 7 out of 10.

Michael Diven = 0 out of 0.

Others, with names, are free to recap in the comment section. I took plenty of notes and will try to post them in a day or two.
Posted by at

1 comment:

Thomas Leturgey said...

Mark did a good job framing some of the issues, and Wayne Fontana showcased his "Democrats have a majority on County Council, so I was able to push practically anything through" record.

As for the Mayor's Debate, Bob O'Connor exuded mayoral characteristics...commanded presence at the podium while others sat and share a traveling microphone (until Les Ludwig started doing the same, albeit late in the game and without much content...aside from a poignant shot or two at O'Connor.)

My question regarding the stifling power of city worker unions was answered with some confusion by O'Connor, and only satisfactually by Republican Joe Weinroth, who acknowledged one of the city leadership's most obvious problems.

Despite Bill Peduto's mistake of not "going to the podium" like O'Connor, his rhetoric was the most polished.

Michael Lamb's DOA candidacy is unfortunate. He seems intelligent, however, without any real apparent charisma or "command of a room." It's been reported that Lamb flinched when someone told him he "sounded like a Republican" with some of his fiscal conservative ideology. If that's the case, it's too bad. A Democrat with firm fiscal conservativeness...ala County Executive Dan Onorato, can obviously win in Allegheny County.

Mayor's Race Scoreboard:

O'Connor: 8.5...(10 on "looking like the Mayor" and 7 with actual effectiveness.

Weinroth: 8...(9 on ideology and six on presence...besides Ludwig, Weinroth is the only non politician)

Peduto: 7.5 (8.5 on ideology...5.5 because as the true "hungry Democrat" he didn't "Step to the Podium" and made O'Connor "look like the Mayor." Peduto supposed has a "crack PR staff" in his campaign. So far, they have been MIA.

Ludwig: 7 (A couple of good placed shots at O'Connor)

Lamb: 7 (looked very uncomfortable; it's obvious that his first TV Spot, which takes a shot at O'Connor's "Trolley Plan" rubs the former City Council President the wrong way. When he spoke, Lamb sounded good, but he looked ticked about something).

April 12, 2005 9:19 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)