I was hoping for some dramatic political fireworks, but mostly I got some mildly interesting sparklers. That pretty much sums up my reaction to a hour-long “mayoral debate” on You Tube featuring Julie Hoy and Vanessa Nordyke sponsored by What’s Happening Salem and Capital Community Media.
Which really wasn’t a bad thing.
Both candidates for mayor in the May election were polite with each other, frequently saying “I agree” to what their opponent said in response to questions posed by the moderators. Who did a very good job. The questions were thoughtful, and the production value of the You Tube broadcast was high. No major glitches, just a few minor ones.
Today the Salem Reporter published a story by Joe Siess about the “debate,” In campaign, Hoy doing “God’s work” while Nordyke vows to fight for Salem’s poor. I keep putting quotation remarks around “debate” because it featured Mayor Hoy and Councilor Nordyke answering questions from the moderators. There was minimal direct interaction between Hoy and Nordyke.
I had to squint with my ears to discern the fundamental policy differences that Siess observed. He wasn’t wrong in saying this. I just suspect that the average viewer of the forum (a more accurate term than debate, in my opinion) would have come away thinking that the main difference between Hoy and Nordyke is more stylistic than substantive.
A stark contrast emerged during a debate between a mayor seeking reelection who says she values stability and fiscal responsibility in government and her challenger, who said government needs to improve people’s lives.
Well, Siess saw more of a stark contrast than I did. True, Hoy did stress stability and fiscal responsibility, but she also spoke about improving people’s lives. And Nordyke emphasized a need to make city government work more efficiently, along with providing more services to Salem residents.
I took some notes as I watched the forum. Mainly, though, I tried to put myself in the position of an undecided voter who doesn’t know how to cast their ballot in the mayoral election. While I’m confident that current supporters of Hoy and Nordyke thought their favored candidate kicked butt in the forum, I’m doubtful that anyone undecided heard much that would make them tilt toward one candidate or the other.
Maybe this is what Nordyke and Hoy intended, with more than two months remaining until the election. Neither scored major political points, but neither made a major political error. Heck, it was difficult for to discern even minor political errors.
Hoy didn’t come across as conservative as I believe she truly is. Nordyke didn’t come across as liberal as I believe she truly is. Each leaned toward the middle of the political spectrum, rather than appealing to those on the right and left.
I don’t recall Hoy saying anything negative about homeless people, even though she’s shown signs of wanting to crack down on homeless camps. Nordyke said she wanted to reach out to developers to see how city staff can be more helpful to builders rather than conveying an adversarial impression. Both candidates agreed that Salem needs more housing.
Understand: I didn’t find anything terribly wrong with Hoy and Nordyke agreeing with each other so often, and saying nice things about each other. I get tired of the endless insults and fighting in our national politics. I simply felt that each candidate was putting on a smiling face that masked some real differences between them.
There were hints of this in the forum. Hoy said that the City of Salem can’t tax its way out of a fiscal deficit. Nordyke said that initially Hoy claimed that the city had a spending problem rather than a revenue problem, but she was pleased that Hoy came around to supporting the “livability” property tax levy. There were other examples where I felt that a bit more probing by either candidate would draw some political blood, but each chose to just engage in some minor scratches.
Since an investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission found that Mayor Hoy was the ringleader of an illegal scheme to force Keith Stahley, the city manager at the time, to resign, lying three times about what she did, I was surprised that this ethics violation (which also unwittingly embroiled Nordyke and other councilors in the scheme) wasn’t brought up in the forum.
Irritatingly, because Stahley never had a chance to make needed changes identified in a performance audit, several times Hoy said that Krishna Namburi, who replaced Stahley, deserves credit for making the City of Salem run better after the previous city manager left. Hoy didn’t mention, and Nordyke didn’t either, that Stahley left because Hoy forced him to resign in an illegal fashion and likely Stahley would have made the same changes that Namburi did if he’d been able to stay in his job.
This was an opening skirmish in the mayoral race. I suspect there will be bigger battles in the months ahead. Hopefully this happens. It’s fine to minimize differences in an initial forum. I just feel that Salem voters deserve a more extensive discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of Nordyke and Hoy.
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