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The Mayoral Forum
I sat in the audience last night at the Plattsburgh High School auditorium, listening to the questions and answers of the Mayoral Forum sponsored by the Plattsburgh Area League of
Women Voters. This group deserves much credit for the service it provides, especially in the weeks preceding November elections.
Last night's forum (it wasn't really called a "debate") was well-organized, but not well-attended. The LWV has co-presidents, Myra Decker and Betsy Metz, and they kept the one-hour forum moving in a fair manner. Earlier in the day the League of Women Voters had hosted similar events for the candidates for the 114th Assembly district, the 45th Senate district and 23rd Congressional district. A busy day, indeed, for this group of concerned citizens.
Those forums will be televised on Mountain Lake PBS on Friday at noon and 8pm, on Saturday at 6pm and on Sunday at 1pm. The mayoral forum was not taped for television and that's a shame. There are many voters who might end up voting for "my party," or "that's what my neighbor said," instead of finding out for themselves which mayoral candidate may help Plattsburgh the most.
The audience of about 70, including media and relatives of the candidates, seemed to enjoy last night's forum and, judging from the early polite applause, the audience seemed to be divided between supporters of Democrat Kevin Duniho and Republican Don Kasprzak.
It was an interesting audience, comprising a nice cross-section of Plattsburgh's citizenry. One of the first to arrive was John Welch, armed with his New York Daily News. He was followed by concerned citizens such as Ed Champagne, Steve Lorry, Karen Hulburt, Don Garrant, Dave Merkel, Meredith O'Connor, Harold Brohinsky, Jen Colver, Bill Provost, Bill Patten and Jim & Cheryl Godfrey.
Happily, I wasn't the only man in the audience with a ponytail. Ed Champagne's is a lot longer than mine, both length-wise and time-wise. And the arrival of Bill Patten made it a trio of male tails in this politically-concerned group.
Joe Lotemplio, reporter, and Rob Fountain, photographer, represented the Press-Republican newspaper. Joe brought his notepad and pen and Rob had an expensive camera with a wide-angle lens attached. In fact, if you look carefully in today's printed version of the newspaper, you will see "the Fox" sitting in front of Joe Lo and next to Jen Colver, in the third row.
Both candidates made their views clear during the forum, and my personal choice for mayor hadn't been changed by the end of the sixty minutes. But it was informative and it's too bad more people didn't attend.
It's not too late to get informed about the important vote for mayor. I encourage you to visit the following websites for information:
Plattsburgh Area League of Women Voters: www.plattsburgh.ny.lwvnet.org
Don Kasprzak: www.electkasprzak.com
Kevin Duniho: www.dunihoformayor.com
Comments
The rent a Mayor and the council didn't have to decide on the Bove project at the last meeting. I feerl that if the council did as much work on the audit and budget as they did on the Bove project, citizens of Plattsburgh wouldn't consider electing their pet dog to run the city. I for one am tired of all the finger pointing and wish someone would be HONEST instead of playing the blame game.
Posted by: Chris Heckard | November 4, 2006 8:33 AM
Just too bad we aren't going to have a mayoral election for awhile so that the rent-a-mayor had to cast the deciding vote on the Bove project.
(Foxy's note: Yes, good point. I'm sure when Mayor Jack took the job he didn't expect to be embroiled in controversy. He's probably counting the days till the new mayor takes office.)
Posted by: rubble | November 3, 2006 9:56 PM
Foxy, thank you and all the attendees for taking time out of your busy schedules to listen to Kevin and me. We care about our city, however, each of us has a different philosophy and approach to handling the serious problems we are facing.
That is why debates are so important. It gives all candidates the opportunity to explain their positions on the key issues.
Posted by: Donny Kasprzak | November 3, 2006 4:50 PM