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The Blade, University of
Toledo mayoral Internet debate held last week at UT’s
Doermann Theatre, minus a live audience, was more a
theatrical production than political policy debate. In
essence, the event was a question and answer session that
afforded The Blade staff the opportunity to ask candidates
the sticky questions which they may have been dodging over
time.
There were in my opinion,
clear winners and losers.
One obvious winner was
Sandy Spang. The recently-elected councilwoman was extremely
knowledgeable over a broad range of issues and possessed a
comfortable familiarity with the processes of municipal
government that belie her short tenure on City Council.
Unlike the other
candidates, Spang also understood the true context of the
“production” and spoke directly to the cameras rather than
responding to The Blade’s panel of writers. Spang brings
support from a wide spectrum of political perspectives.
Another clear winner in
the “debate” was former Mayor Mike Bell.
Bell, leveraging the
reputation of his parents in the community and his past
public service, provided a credible rebuttal to
uncomfortable questions of personal character generated by
accusations made on social media by a younger woman who
claimed the former mayor groped her at a bar.
Bell was also convincing
in expressing his change of heart in supporting the
anti-union SB5 bill as he explained his rational for
originally supporting the legislation. Remorseful, he will
now “respect the will of the citizens” rather than relying
on his own thoughts of what is best.
Ohio Governor John Kasich
has proven that politicians can survive support of SB5 and
Bell will at least get a “minority” percentage of the black
vote, which he will share with former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner
and current Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson.
Bell’s presentation was
shaped primarily for his base, the business community. He
should receive the realtors’ endorsement and is vying with
Hicks-Hudson for the Chamber of Commerce (who did not expect
him to run) endorsement.
Hicks-Hudson was very
knowledgeable and academic but soft-spoken during the debate
and did not hurt her re-election chances. The one negative
concerning the mayor’s appearance was the distracting glare
from the studio lights in her eyeglasses, which prevented
her from looking more personal and engaging in her
presentation. Contacts? A good (eye-dea) perhaps.
While the women voting
demographic is expected to be split among Hicks-Hudson,
Spang and Drabik-Collins, far-left progressive votes are
likely to be siphoned from Hicks-Hudson to Mike Ferner. The
liberal Ferner acquitted himself very well as a
representative of the progressive left. The expanded turnout
of up to 70,000 voters precipitated by Issue 3, the
Marijuana Legalization legislation, will energize Ferner
supporters and serve as a wildcard in the election of mayor
to complete the term of late Mayor D. Michael Collins.
Who were the losers?
Sandra Drabik Collins,
leveraging the agenda and memory of her late husband,
appeared to be visibly nervous, old and tired. Although
Collins made several good points, there was very little
enthusiasm in her presentation.
Drabik-Collins will
attract a small percentage of Democrats, a small percentage
of labor, but the majority of her base is expected to be
from South Toledo, older white citizens, and a mix of men
and women.
Another loser is former
three-term mayor Finkbeiner, who was not politically correct
and out of touch in calling The Blade panelist Marlene
Taylor-Harris “honey,” in responding to a question.
At 76 years old,
Finkbeiner is not an ally to the LGBT Community or any other
contemporary progressive movements. In addition, The Blade
has confirmed the Bell administration assertion that he
bequeathed an almost $48 million dollar deficit upon leaving
his most recent term. Community leaders, and others,
rightfully, are also concerned with how the former mayor
treats his staff. Finkbeiner, who has been on the losing
end of litigation against civil rights of individuals, has
spun the alleged accusations of verbal and emotional abuse
of staff as “leadership,” but others have characterized his
management style as “tyrannical.”
“I don’t think I need to
go into how he treats his staff, and for the people who sit
there and say, ‘Well this is the type of leadership we
need.’ No, it’s not,” lamented a person close to a rival
campaign. “That is not leadership. That is being a boss,
and there’s a difference between being a boss and being a
leader. The boss is a person who sits up on the 22nd floor
and tells people what to do, cracking a whip. So the boss
is the one that’s sitting there ordering the horses to go.
The leader is the one who’s in there with the horses pulling
the cart, working with the team, steering the ship with
them, that’s a leader. Carty is not a leader. And he’s
already said, he’s like ‘I’m only gonna be in for two
years,’ he said, ‘I’m only gonna do two years.’ Again, it’s
not any type of continuity, and continuity is what the city
needs right now, given our budget challenges,” adds the
campaign volunteer.
Yet, despite the
candidates’ “Showtime performances,” a recent poll puts
Carty (25.8 percent) and Bell (25.3 percent) in a
statistical tie for the lead in election outcome
projections. Hicks-Hudson (15.5 percent), Drabik-Collins
(14.5 percent), and Spang (9.5 percent) follow at a
distance.
With 20,000 new voters in
addition to the expected 50,000 expected to show up because
of Issue 3, the Blade-UT debate was more meaningless
practice run than significant dress rehearsal.
What is certain, however,
is that if current Mayor Hicks-Hudson is to be successful in
retaining her office, then both the Ohio and Lucas County
Democratic Party must step up and make their support for her
real instead of merely a “role-playing performance.”
Otherwise, the Party will
be the real losers.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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