A.G. Gancarski
The Jacksonville Mayoral Debate schedule is starting to take shape, and Mayor Alvin Brown will be participating in at least two upcoming debates, discussing his “record of accomplishment for Jacksonville”, according to a release from his campaign.
The first debate agreed to will be on Thursday, March 12 at 7:00 PM, at WJCT-TV, and will be sponsored by the Florida Times-Union, First Coast News, and WJCT itself. The second debate will be six days later, on Wednesday, March 18, and will be sponsored by News 4 JAX and the Jacksonville University Public Policy Institute.
The Brown campaign sees this as an opportunity to lay out the Mayor’s first-term achievements to Jacksonville voters.
“We are pleased to accept the invitations from these two debate organizers and look forward to having honest discussions about the issues that are important to the people of Jacksonville,” said Fabien Levy, Deputy Campaign Manager for the Brown campaign. “Mayor Brown is the only one in this race that has put Jacksonville first and voters will have the chance to hear about Mayor Brown’s leadership helping to create jobs and boost our economy, protect tax dollars, strengthen education programs, and clean up our streets. Voters deserve to hear the truth about where the different candidates stand on these important issues.”
Interestingly, the Brown campaign lays out its preferred debate rules in the release, including “a random drawing for opening and closing statements, as well as the first question. Predetermining speaking order before the debate would be preferential treatment to individual candidates and would threaten the impartiality of the hosts”, claims the Campaign.
At this time, the debate is expected to include the three major candidates: the incumbent Mayor, as well as Bill Bishop and Lenny Curry.
When contacted for comment, the Curry campaign spokesman, Brian Hughes, said that “we are confirmed for both and expect more”, adding further criticisms of the Mayor’s messaging thus far.
It’s disappointing that Alvin Brown is only doing 2 debates and waiting until the very last week to talk to voters. It’s pretty clear that there’s a strategy for Brown to avoid public discussions of the issues. It’s clear he does not want to discuss his plan to borrow $240 million at a time the city can’t keep track of the money it already received from taxpayers, or that he did raise taxes by using revenue from tax increases in his budget. Certainly he would like to avoid talking about the pay-to-play appropriations of millions he puts in his budgets for his campaign donors. Undoubtedly, he’d hate to have to answer questions about why shortly after cutting fire rescue budgets, on the eve of an election reports now say he offered a taxpayer-funded concession to union bosses in exchange for an endorsement the rank-and-file firefighters rejected. Plus I am certain he’d hate to have to explain how after he claimed to reject a taxpayer funded retirement, he is still an active participant in the public retirement system. Liberty Street, no way he wants to explain that one. I mean he sent his press secretary to angry residents who spent weeks without basic services.
Bishop, meanwhile, had some observations as well. “I’m glad he has at least agreed to these. It will be a first if he shows up. The last paragraph [of the press release] sounds like his campaign thinks there might be an attempt to make the debates unfair,” Bishop said, referring to the calls for a “random drawing” of speaking order in the debate potentially threatening the “impartiality of the hosts”.
