BY DAN CAMPANA
Three candidates take the stage for a forum during a campaign and ... .
There's no punchline. It's just what happened. And what happened is just what you'd expect.
Mayor Tom Weisner, Alderman Richard Irvin and Alderman Stephanie Kifowit met for the trio's second forum tonight. There were no revelations, although each threw a few more jabs.
Here, now, a sampling of what went down.
-- Weisner is likely to get claustrophobic if forum organizers keep making him stand between his opponent, who, again, lobbed criticism back-and-forth like they were playing catch with a tennis ball.
-- Weisner took a more defensive stance, but looked uncomfortable as he tried to joke that he was indeed the person responsible for a lousy economy. His point was that Irvin and Kifowit are blaming him for every ill facing Aurora.
-- Aurora's crime rate was a major player throughout the little more than 90-minute forum. Early on, Irvin downplayed Weisner's specific impact on diminished crime, but he later dropped in that the city faced a "new crime wave" -- a reference to a pair of recent deaths, at least one of which has been classified a murder.
-- Kifowit pulled out a couple of new wrinkles. She glowed about how Elgin has changed because of riverboat gaming tax money, and wondered aloud why the millions Aurora has received hasn't brought a similar transformation here.
-- Kifowit also told the crowd she doesn't have any tattoos.
-- Weisner took exception to another comparison between Aurora and Naperville raised by his opponents. He turned it around by saying similar-sized cities (Joliet and Rockford) have worse unemployment rates than Aurora.
-- Impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich name didn't come up once, even though Kifowit delicately brought up her impression of campaign donations being exchanged for city contracts.
-- President Obama's name also was not mentioned.
-- All three candidates mentioned their spouses.
-- Weisner used "unaccountable bureaucrat" to describe a city administrator, which Kifowit said would be brought in under her administration.
And so it will continue. Next forum is Wednesday.
I was there. I thought it was fun.
It seems kinda random that you just put:
"-- Kifowit also told the crowd she doesn't have any tattoos."
For those that attended (and were paying attention) she was making a larger point which referenced her plan as Mayor to LISTEN to the people of Aurora by asking them what types of businesses they would like to see downtown. I think that is a simple and effective way to sell Aurora to businesses. She said that downtown Aurora has 6 tattoo parlors, and that she (as a resident) didn't ask for that. Have you?
Weisner's philosophy is to put all your eggs in one Shodeen-East-Bank basket and hope it works out. Irvin suggested MORE residential development downtown?! There are PLENTY of residential vacancies right now! He said they need to be advertised better or something to that affect... River Street Condos were giving away a FREAKING MERCEDES WITH A PURCHASE OF A CONDO! If THATS not going to sell them you need to present a clearer plan than just proposing to advertise better.
I dunno. If Weisner or Irvin can't prepare for a debate, what makes us think that they can prepare for the day-to-day activities as Mayor?
It was interesting how Irvin also tried to make it look like "facts" are a bad thing. That was almost as huge of a reach as Weisner trying to present some mysterious evidence he found in the Daily Herald that he fumbled through in his closing statement (interesting timing).
Perhaps I should have prefaced that Kifowit line with "out of context comment of the night."
Yes, she did mention it as part of her slam on the number of tattoo shops Aurora has.
Thanks for the response.
I was at the debate last night. I thought all the candidates did a good job, but Weisner's performance gets my vote for winner. The other candidates seemed to ramble on a bit, but Weisner's remarks were clear and backed up by facts. I was particularly swayed by his arguement that our city's unemployment is much lower than similar cities such as Joliet, Elgin and Rockford. I think we can credit his work as Mayor for helping us stay afloat in these tough economic times.
weisner's remarks were clear... clear he has no vision of change for Aurora. spent the whole time defending his questionable business practices and not talking about anything new except that new Irish pub. I aint Irish.
Kifowit gets my vote.
Naperville is at 4.7. Guess once again Naperville is the better town.
I think the thing that bothered me the most about the debate was Weisner saying he was sick of comparisons to Naperville. Isn't he the one who came up with the slogan "A City Second to None"? How can he expect people not to compare Aurora with Naperville after he invited them?