March 28, 2024
Annapolis, US 51 F

Another Mayoral Forum

Were These The Same People?debate

Last week, the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis sponsored a Mayoral Forum which featured all candidates from both parties. Last night, local political blog Annapolis Capital Punishment sponsored a forum held at the Calvary United Methodist Church. While all candidates were invited, only six attended. Dave Cordle, Laurie Sears-Deppa, and Wayne Taylor did not participate.

As to be expected, the debate was lively and very well run with Paul Foer (publisher of Annapolis Capital Punishment) not afraid to cut off a candidate that began to grandstand a bit–as they are all prone to do.  Also as expected, the topics were biased (nothing wrong with that) toward the Market House debacle, the City Manager initiative, and transportation.

Having attended both forums, it was interesting to see the change in some candidates. The change in venue seems to have completely changed the way some candidates presented themselves.  Some were much more assured and seem to have come back from obscurity, while others seem to have left their eloquence in the trunk of their car in the parking lot. But will a resurgence from obscurity and a lack of eloquence translate to winner or loser in the voting booth?

After the last forum, we felt that there were five front runners and in our opinion, this forum solidly narrowed it down to four.

An interesting note, the final question (from the audience) attempted to see where the candidates felt they were different from the others.  The question was “What makes you and your candidacy so different than the candidate on your right?” It was interesting that most declined to answer the question and just move onto a closing statement. However, there was some levity when Chris Fox (Independent) said that he was the only candidate in the room that was sure he’d be in the race after September. And when Gilbert Renaut stood up and just looked at Zina Pierre, the audience could not help but laugh. (For those unaware, Gilbert is an older white male, and Zina is a younger black woman.)

And speaking of voting booths, did you place your vote in our Mayoral Facebook Race poll?

(Congratulations to Annapolis Capital Punishment for 100,000 blog readers. If you are not already reading it to keep on top of Annapolis politics, you need to be!)

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