This year’s race for the District 8 Congressional seat has been especially acrimonious, marked by an unusually high number of negative attack ads and rancorous partisan bickering.
Yet before the Central Florida Urban League’s most recent “Conversation with the Candidates” got under way, the antagonists greeted each other cordially. Ideological opposites Alan Grayson, the Democratic incumbent, and Florida Tea Party candidate Peg Dunmire even shook hands and chatted, encircled by TV lights and the flashes of at least a dozen digital cameras.
The forum, held at the Varsity Club at the Citrus Bowl, was the second in the Urban League’s series of meet-the-candidate forums. An earlier Conversation featured Orange County mayoral hopefuls Bill Segal and Teresa Jacobs.
A third Conversation had been scheduled for the Congressional District 3 candidates in Sanford, but was postponed when the incumbent, Congresswoman Corinne Brown, had a scheduling conflict.
Part of the Urban League’s I Have a Voice program, the Conversations were designed to encourage voters to get to know the candidates and generate enthusiasm about voting in the Nov. 2 general election.
Urban League President and CEO Allie Braswell emphasized the importance of voting. Barely 20 percent of Florida voters went to the polls in the August primary, he said, an embarrassingly poor turnout. Minorities in particular should vote, he said, citing the struggles of civil rights activists to secure peoples’ rights at the ballot box.
Missing from the event was the Republican hopeful, State Sen. Daniel Webster. Grayson blasted the challenger for failing to meet the voters and exchange ideas with fellow candidates.
“He thinks that he’s going to have this election handed to him by the special interests,” Grayson said.
Braswell told the small but interested crowd that Webster was absent because of a scheduling conflict. Webster’s campaign office, however, has maintained that he will only debate Grayson one-on-one. For his part, Grayson has refused to debate unless all candidates are invited. Some Republicans have accused Grayson of promoting Dunmire and the Florida Tea Party as a spoiler to split the conservative vote.
On stage, there was an empty chair for Webster. In addition to Grayson and Dunmire, other candidates present were independent George Metcalfe and write-in hopeful Steven Gerritzen of the Whig Party.
After Braswell’s opening remarks, the candidates wasted no time defining what sets them apart from their opponents. In addition to occasional swipes at Webster, Grayson played up his accomplishments for the district, especially on the issues of the foreclosure crisis and jobs.
Asked about his priorities, Grayson responded, “jobs, jobs and jobs. You can’t solve any of the other problems we face unless you have jobs. You can’t do anything to help the middle class in Florida without jobs.”
The other three, all more conservative, criticized the two-party system and advocated smaller government in Washington.
“Both Democrats and Republicans are corrupt,” Dunmire said. “Their bills are written by the special interests.”
They also said they would work to repeal President Obama’s health-care legislation, called for balanced budgets and advocated the so-called Fair Tax, a national sales tax that would replace income tax. Dunmire also said she would abolish the IRS.
The candidates also took written questions from the audience, which were reviewed before being read aloud by an Urban League designee. All candidates had an opportunity to address each question.
Leonard Spencer’s query had to do with people’s declining faith in government.
“Most people who pay attention to politics have seen great ideas rejected just because they come from the other side of the aisle,” he noted. “What would you do to change the partisan atmosphere of Washington?”
Dunmire reiterated one of her core beliefs: that power should be in the hands of the people. For example, she said, instead of funneling federal stimulus through the states, the money could have been equally divided and given directly to unemployed people.
The stimulus, or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provided $219 billion nationally for a variety of programs and projects.
Metcalfe, however, called the notion “foolish. If you give some people money,” he said, “they might decide not to work.”
Dunmire countered that she was only giving an example of how to empower people, not the government.
Grayson also took her to task for her response to a question about real estate. Her statement that the government caused the housing crisis and should move aside and let the market handle it “verges on naïve,” Grayson said.
“Government underwrites millions of mortgages,” he said. “Saying the government should get out of the housing market is like saying it should get out of the military. Without government, there would be no housing market.”
As the event neared its close, the candidates found common ground again in a question about net neutrality posed by Robert M. Spooney, executive director of the African-American Chamber of Commerce.
Grayson said he favored it and would enforce it. Dunmire said she supported it because it’s in line with her anti-regulation beliefs, and Gerritzen agreed. Metcalfe first admitted to not being familiar with the issue – “this is the perfect question to stump me,” he said – but later indicated his support of net neutrality because “the internet is a public utility.”
All Conversations with the Candidates are non-partisan.
A number of community organizations have joined the “I Have a Voice” campaign. “We are extremely pleased that other organizations have agreed to work with us as partners in this effort,” Braswell said. Partners include the African-American Chamber of Commerce, the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP – Seminole County and the NAACP- Volusia County. The Asian American Chamber of Commerce also has expressed support for the initiative. In addition, the Caribbean American Passport magazine, the Florida Sun, the Orlando Advocate, the Orlando Times, the West Orlando News, WESH-TV and WOKB Radio have joined the effort as media partners.
This was a debate? How could it be with two candidates who demonstrate they lack the intellectual capacity for the job and then you have a Peg (the Grayson shill) Dunmire. I wonder if Peg and Al practice with each other before they took the stage?