I apologize for not submitting this sooner, but I attended the 3rd ward debate at Edison high school Wednesday night that was organized by the Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association Youth Committee and wanted to share my thoughts.
First off, I'd like to commend the HNIA Youth Committee for doing a such a great job organizing this event with so little time to prepare. What an excellent group of young people Holland is lucky to have! As for the debate, fifteen of the candidates took part, which made for an unusual event. Due to some issues with the sound system and my own hearing difficulties, it was hard for me to follow all of the questions and responses, so I mostly made note of my own impressions. It was fairly obvious watching the candidates that Shane Price and Valdis Rozentals have an advantage due to their experience from running in last year's election. Both showed a good ability to connect with the audience, which I would have to guess numbered close to 100 or so, but please don't hold me to that as I sat up front and didn't really have a chance to try and count. Also, now that I have seen him in person, I'm better understanding the support that Don Samuels has garnered. I can't really speak to his familiarity with all of the issues, but the man definitely has charisma. The most creative lit award probably would have to go to Margo Ashmore, who offered a two-page sheet summarizing her goals and experience that opened up to a window sign. I must admit it looks pretty slick. I do have to say that I'm still struggling to understand what the big deal with Olin Moore is. Other than apparently having enough insider backing to nail down the DFL endorsement, nothing really seems to stand out about the guy. He didn't really appear to connect with the audience, his lit was poorly-designed and didn't say anything particularly impressive, especially compared to several of the lesser-known candidates and from what I could hear, he didn't really have anything new or exciting to offer for solving the problems Minneapolis and particularly 3rd ward, faces. Even when he was hand-shaking before and after the debate, he gave off a vibe that felt to me like he was going through the motions. Maybe he was tired or something, but he didn't give me an impression that he really wanted to be there. I'm not sure it's possible to declare a "winner" of a fifteen-person debate, but I do think Shane, Valdis and Don did the best jobs at garnering positive responses from the audience and as far as I could tell, there wasn't any overwhelming group of supporters present for any candidate, so I do think the audience responses were sincere. I personally thought Shane did the best job, but I'm also have to admit I am biased since he's been a friend from the days when I worked in Hawthorne several years back and I'm a supporter of his campaign. I know there were others on this list who were at the debate and I hope they'll be able to share their thoughts as well. Mark Snyder Windom Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
