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Menino debate watch enters week six
Allston/Brighton TAB - Political notebook
Friday, August 12, 2005
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It has been more than a month since City Councilor At-Large and mayoral
candidate Maura Hennigan challenged Mayor Thomas M. Menino to a series of debates.
“It’s really getting ridiculous that we are getting this far into the
campaign and my opponent won’t even say the word debate, let alone agree to
one,” Hennigan said. “I think it’s pretty obvious that he’s afraid and knows
his platform and record won’t hold up in a debate.”
In the San Diego mayor’s race, there have already been four debates. In
2003, both Jacksonville and Houston had three televised mayoral debates, and
Los Angeles had several debates this year.
In 2001, Menino agreed to one debate that lasted less than half an hour.
“Debating isn’t some new fad; it’s part of the democratic process to have
debates,” Hennigan said. It’s a wonderful way for voters to see the contrast in
candidates and their platforms.”
In her travels around the city talking to voters and listening to their
concerns, Hennigan has been asked by the public if she thinks Menino will debate her.
“It’s sad that he won’t even consider debates when it’s so clear that the
voting public wants them,” Hennigan said. “This shouldn’t be about if, it
should be about when.”
Repeated requests by the Hennigan campaign for a debate have gone
unanswered by the Menino campaign.
“That’s pretty much on par with their candidate,” Hennigan campaign
manager Mitch Kates said. “If he hears something he doesn’t like, he usually
ignores or denies it. It’s in keeping with his ‘bury your head in the sand’
style of governing.”
The Hennigan Campaign for Mayor will continue to press for several
debates before the November election.
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Profile in cowardice
Adam Reilly
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
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Maura Hennigan’s press conference last Thursday was supposed to focus
on policy: by extending Boston’s school day, the mayoral challenger and
at-large councilor told a small audience gathered outside Boston Public
Schools headquarters, the city could spur learning and keep kids out of
trouble. But the high point came afterward, when Hennigan slipped into
Latin to taunt her opponent, Mayor Tom Menino. "Praefectus urbis Menino
colloquii virtutem non habet," she shouted over her posse’s applause.
Then, reverting to English, she offered a rough translation: "I believe
Mayor Menino does not have the courage to debate, and I challenge him to
meet me face to face." As Hennigan waved goodbye, a middle-aged woman in a
Hennigan T-shirt took up the cause. "Come on, Menino!" she hollered
derisively in the general direction of City Hall. "Come on down!"
At this rate, it’s not going to happen. Members of the Boston media
have been urging face-to-face meetings between Menino and his rival for
three months. In response, the mayor has trotted out an ever-changing
assortment of lame excuses: the field isn’t set yet. I’m too busy. I talk
to the people of Boston all the time at neighborhood meetings.
The day after Hennigan’s press conference, the Phoenix found
Menino on Boston Common, presiding over the annual opening of the Frog
Pond. After glad-handing with various park workers and cute kids, most of
whom were wearing de facto Menino campaign garb (shirts labeled BOSTON
PARKS AND RECREATION/THOMAS M. MENINO, MAYOR), the mayor offered his
latest dodge. "We’ll have discussions on the issues, no question about
it," he promised. "There’s an appropriate time during the course of the
campaign to have those discussions, and we’ll have those discussions." But
will those discussions be debates? "I’m not runnin’ for president of the
debating club," Menino non-answered. "I’m runnin’ for mayor of Boston. I
want a full discussion of the issues ... I’m looking to discuss the issues
in a forum where you can really get questions from people that’re affected
— not people who assume they have the questions, but people in the
neighborhoods who understand issues."
Not running for president of the debating club? Even by Menino
standards, that’s pretty lame stuff. (Just imagine the reaction if
President Bush had used a line like that in 2004.) Still, from a selfishly
pragmatic point of view, the mayor’s obstinacy makes sense. Denying
mayoral opponents the chance to make their case is a time-honored Boston
tradition. Four years ago, Menino offered the same weak arguments before
agreeing to one debate against his opponent, Peggy Davis-Mullen. That
event — a half-hour session moderated by then-WB-56 political analyst Jon
Keller — was broadcast on a Saturday night and Sunday morning in late
October, two weeks before the election. Similarly, in 1979, incumbent
Kevin White undercut his political archenemy Joe Timilty — Menino’s former
boss — by agreeing to just one debate, which was held at a comparably
inopportune time.
Unlike the ’79 bout — in which Timilty pressed White before losing by a
relatively slim 13,000-vote margin — the 2006 Boston mayoral election is
shaping up to be a classic mismatch. Menino is a three-term incumbent with
high approval numbers, the support of Boston’s power structure, and
approximately $1 million in the bank; in contrast, Hennigan has less than
$50,000 and hasn’t won a head-to-head election in her lengthy political
career. Still, from Menino’s point of view, agreeing to debates would be
tantamount to turning an overmatched opponent into a political equal, if
only for an evening or two. Even taking Menino’s muddled diction and
quickness to anger into account, the chances of a mayoral meltdown severe
enough to make the race competitive would be slim. But why take the
chance?
The answer is simple: out of respect for the city Menino claims to
love. The mayor has reached a dangerous point in his tenure: he’s been in
office for so long, and has such complete control of city government, that
anyone who criticizes a mayoral decision can be summarily dismissed as a
whiner, a Luddite, an outsider lacking the authentic insight of Menino’s
friends "in the neighborhoods." And 99 percent of the time, when King Tom
decides not to listen to someone, whatever idea that person had is dead
and buried. (Last year offered a rare exception, when a coalition led by
City Councilor Chuck Turner derailed a Menino-backed push to revamp
Boston’s student-assignment plan). Nine years ago, when
Menino told the audience for his State of the City address to "judge me
harshly" if Boston’s schools didn’t improve under his guidance, the mayor
at least acknowledged the possibility that he might stumble on occasion.
Today, this recognition has been replaced by a kind of presumed mayoral
infallibility.
Such an attitude would be problematic in the best of times. Today,
however, it’s clear Menino has been unable to master some key problems
facing the city. Boston real estate is brutally expensive for lower- and
middle-class families, for example. And the city’s public schools continue
to spook many parents, prompting them to relocate or look for private
alternatives if their children don’t test well enough to get into coveted
exam schools like Boston Latin. As a result, perhaps, Boston is
hemorrhaging residents; just last week, the US Census Bureau reported that
over 19,000 people, or 3.4 percent of Boston’s population, left the city
between April 2000 and July 2004. Factor in the city’s recent spike in
homicides and the steady loss to out-of-town ownership of leading
corporate citizens like John Hancock, Gillette, and Fleet, and it’s clear
that Boston faces some grave challenges. Menino needs to be shoved out of
his comfort zone, pushed to hone his policies until they can withstand
scrutiny in the electoral marketplace. Along the way, the mayor might
actually benefit from exposure to strategies and solutions he hadn’t
previously considered — provided that he can temporarily disable his
knee-jerk instinct to scoff at criticism. One debate with Hennigan would
be good for Boston. Ten debates would be much, much better.
Furthermore, a debate-rich campaign season could help reverse the
apathy that has increasingly gripped Boston politics. It’s true that a
handful of recent elections has generated excitement among segments of the
city’s electorate. But generally speaking, participation in the city’s
electoral rituals is not what it once was. In 1983, in what is still
widely regarded as Boston’s last great mayoral race, 70 percent of city
voters turned out for the final election, which saw Ray Flynn defeat Mel
King. During that race, Flynn, King, and their primary opponents
(including former school-committee president David Finnegan and former
city-council president Larry DiCara) participated in approximately 70
community forums around the city. They did so out of self-interest, of
course — each had an incentive to make his case to as many voters
as possible — but in the process, the candidates helped generate a
remarkable level of civic engagement. Contrast that with 2001, when just
35 percent of Boston voters showed up to vote for either Menino or
Davis-Mullen. Menino wouldn’t single-handedly reverse this trend by
debating Hennigan early and often; there are just too many other factors
involved, from the steady decline in Boston’s population to the increased
number of non-native residents. But he could help point the city in the
right direction.
With four months to go until Election Day, Menino still has time to do
what’s best for Boston and its residents. The course of action he
ultimately takes will say a lot — for better or worse — about what kind of
leader he actually is.
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'Mumbles' wants to speak
Kevin Rothstein - Boston Herald
Thursday, July 14, 2005
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Thomas M. Menino - by his own admission ``no fancy talka'' - has
signaled he will debate his election rival on one condition: that he
gets plenty of time to talk.
``There will be discussions in this campaign with my opponent,'' said the
mayor, who has been reluctant to debate in past campaigns. ``I don't
believe 10-second answers really respects the issues.''
But debate coaches are divided on whether the mayor mocked by critics as
``Mumbles'' should be looking to expand - or limit - his verbal
jousting with opponent Maura Hennigan.
``I wish that Mayor Menino were my client,'' said Samantha von Sperling,
owner of Polished Social Image Consultants. ``If you don't come
across as articulate, you don't come across as intelligent as you
might be, sort of shooting yourself in the foot.''
Speech consultant Dennis Becker agreed, saying, ``No. 1, he does not have a
good skill of being concise, and No. 2, you can't understand his
words enough for him to be concise in a short period of time.''
Becker's diagnosis of the mayor's infamous speaking style: Menino blends
sounds within words and then strings his words together, a
``horrible combination.''
But Northeastern University communications professor Richard Katula
said, ``The thing about Tom Menino is he's been in office long
enough so people are used to the way he speaks. It's almost become
his signature.''
Menino's slowness to embrace debates has been so frustrating to Hennigan
that it's enough to, in his words, ``fry your nose.''
The councilor at large from Jamaica Plain has started a ``debate watch''
counting the days since her challenge more than two weeks ago. She
said she is ``ready, willing and able'' to meet Menino anytime,
anywhere, adding, ``We can have one next week.''
Years ago, Menino and his aides declared: ``We are not running a race for
president of the debating society.'' He has won three consecutive
mayoral elections.
Observers have said the mayor's strategy has been to accept public speaking
as a weakness and to focus instead on his role as the ``urban mechanic'' -
plain talking and focused on his job.
``They wanted to play to his strength, which is being a neighborhood guy,''
Becker said.
And the mayor has continued to get re-elected by simply, in his own
words, ``splinkin' from the heart.''
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Voters needs not debatable
Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist
Monday, July 18, 2005
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I've seen Mayor Thomas M. Menino debate, several times. Most of them
were in 1993, before he was a three-term incumbent, before he decided he
didn't have to do anything he didn't feel like doing.
True, it wasn't an especially pretty sight. He had a tendency to
redundancy and malapropism, and didn't particularly excel at making his
points concisely. He would be the first to say perfect sound bites aren't
his strength.
Still, he wasn't so bad as to swear off debates for life.
Which is why it's a bit puzzling to see him toy with Councilor Maura
Hennigan in her quest to share a stage with him. He's never said he won't
debate -- but there seems to be no set of conditions he will actually
agree to. He has proposed, as an alternative, a series of ''town meetings"
-- rightly ridiculed as debates without an opponent.
Menino is not the first incumbent to recoil at the idea of debating.
It's the norm. A popular incumbent has nothing to gain from sparring with
an opponent. If he wins, he was supposed to. If he loses, he never should
have agreed to it in the first place.
Then there's the ''stature" argument, which holds that an opponent is
immediately elevated to an equal by a debate. Why give your opponent a
chance to look mayoral? It's far more fun to dismiss her as just one more
irrelevant city councilor.
I asked a Menino adviser recently when the campaigns last discussed
debates. ''We're still in the process of naming the chair of our
negotiating team," he said with a chuckle. That basically sums up the
dismissive attitude of Team Menino toward this year's opponent.
Menino seems even more contemptuous of the idea of debating this year
than he was in 2001. That's saying something. Peggy Davis-Mullen didn't
get her lone shot at Menino until mid-October -- in a debate that aired in
the TV wasteland of 10:30 Saturday night. According to reports at the
time, he stalked out of the studio after the debate was taped, apparently
annoyed at the idea of defending his record. ''Take your ball and go home,
as usual," Davis-Mullen called as he departed. She was never afraid to
throw the jab.
Four years ago, he was genuinely reluctant to debate Davis-Mullen. She
figured to outdebate him, and she did. This time around, Menino and those
close to him just seem to enjoy ignoring Hennigan, as she struggles to
find an issue, any issue, that has some traction with voters.
Tactical considerations aside, there is a good reason to debate.
Boston's voters -- those who aren't understandably snoozing through this
barely-there campaign -- have a right to hear what the mayor and his
opponent want to say about the issues facing the city.
Menino often says that he talks to voters every day, across the city.
That is certainly true. But it isn't the same thing as a debate, and he
knows it.
I'd like to hear the mayor explain what comes next for the Boston
schools, the issue on which he once staked his mayoralty. The unease about
public safety shows no sign of abating, not after yet another bloody
weekend. I'd also like to know, one year later, what he thinks the city
really got from the Democratic National Convention, the weeklong party,
the planning of which dominated so much of his third term.
Menino's staff concedes that political pressure will almost certainly
force Menino to debate Hennigan at least once. If Menino has his druthers,
it might take place at 1 a.m. on local-access cable. Voters deserve a lot
better than that.
Menino once deflected his rhetorical shortcomings deftly, declaring
that he wasn't a fancy talker, just a guy who got things done. Now the
idea of addressing the voters is just an inconvenience he doesn't want to
deal with.
The issue of a debate speaks to a larger point. It's about not taking
reelection for granted; it's about not taking the voters for granted. When
that becomes a joke, something's gone very wrong.
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