If anyone goes to the WCHL / Empowerment / Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum at Hargarves tonight, please report back. I have a conflict and can't attend. Their forum for Carrboro candidates last week was pretty interesting, about 50% recycled and about 50% new answers.
Issues:
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Comments
Will -- I love your yard
Will -- I love your yard signs. Great association with a show everybody seems to like makes it easy to remember. Plus those flowers look great!
Thanks James, I'd be happy
Thanks James, I'd be happy to drop one off at your home. Drop me a line: campaign@willraymond.org.
I caught the very end of
I caught the very end of this forum, and the big surprise there was that Kevin Wolff (Kevin Foy's supposed mayoral challenger) appeared. It was the first confirmation I have had that the guy actually exists and is in Chapel Hill. Congrats on showing up. :-P
I was stunned at last
I was stunned at last night's forum by Ed Harrison's response to a question about what you would do if you had a magic wand and could make anything you wanted at Carolina North with it.
He responded that he would use it to get rid of the UNC Board of Trustees.
Now I am certainly no big fan of the BOT, but I was stunned that a candidate would make such a divisive statement. Carolina North is coming whether we like it or not, and we need Council members with strong backbones who can negotiate effectively for the town's interests to make it as positive a thing for our community as it can possibly be. That means working constructively with the BOT, not gratuitously condemning it to score political points.
Maybe Mr. Harrison thinks this kind of statement will make up for his egregious 'gun at his head' statement about the chiller plant in August 2003 and make him look tough on UNC. But campaign rhetoric is no replacement for record on the Council, and this kind of invective only serves to further alienate relations between the town and UNC.
Considering that his voting record and lack of leadership over the last four years has made Mr. Harrison lose most of the progressive base that voted for him in 2001, one would think that he would try to buddy up to the UNC folks and squeak out a distance fourth place finish, ala Jim Ward in 2003. But this nasty and completely unconstructive rhetoric makes me wonder exactly what Mr. Harrison's strategy is- to alienate every powerful constituency in town?
If it was a joke it sure wasn't funny. But even if it was a joke I think he agrees with the sentiment of what he said, and that is not a constructive attitude as we move forward on these difficult issues.