L.A. Mayor KABC Debate Misfocused

Candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles faced-off last night in a one-hour televised debate that sadly, in the midst of a blooming double-dip recession, was focused on highly general environmental policy rather than job growth and policies to improve economic conditions. As a means to elicit useful contrasting information from the candidates, it was simply “a dud”, as most of the questions generated by the League of Conservation Voters, tasked with the responsibility for generating the questions, were soft-balls such as “how do you get to work,” rather than the types of questions Los Angeles voters really care about from their elected officials, such as “what will you do to avoid a city bankruptcy.”

Four candidates for Mayor were featured in the debate although a total of twenty candidates are on the ballot. Those featured included four of the five top money raising candidates, namely, current L.A. Controller Wendy Greuel, Councilwoman Jan Perry, Councilman Eric Garcetti, and former U.S. Attorney and radio talk show host Kevin James. Austin Beutner, who is actually in the number three slot in total contributions raised before the debate, was either excluded or chose not to debate.

The debate aired on KABC and was ably moderated by Marc Brown. The debate was so mechanical that it ended with two minutes to spare, and Brown jumped in and asked the most interesting of the soft-ball questions of the debate, asking each candidate to reveal their “favorite place” in Los Angeles. I thought that was an excellent question and it drew smiles from the candidates and some great responses, revealing personal connections to the city.

Among the top performers in the debate were Kevin James and Jan Perry. At one point in the debate a questioner asked one of the few really useful questions, asking what the positions of the candidates for Mayor would be on a sales tax increase measure that may be placed on the same ballot. Garcetti got the first response and he completely dodged the question, babbling on about improved economic conditions in his own council district. Greuel responded in the same manner, using her time to talk in highly general terms about economic conditions but completely dodging the question. Then it was Kevin James’ turn, and he squarely stated “I am the third person to be asked but I will be the first person to actually answer the question” and he stated he opposed a sales tax increase because it would be bad for creating jobs and would hurt economic conditions. He stated he had signed the ballot argument against such a measure. The question then went to Jan Perry, who represents south central Los Angeles on the Council, and she stated she also opposed a sales tax increase. In later questioning Greuel went off theme to state she also opposes a sales tax increase in Los Angeles, but Garcetti made no such clarification later in the debate.

Of the candidates, Garcetti was quite polished and rehearsed but lacked charisma. He seemed almost like a robot in discussing his accomplishments and intentions for Los Angeles. Greuel was also somewhat mechanical in her responses but showed some charm and underscored that she is a life-long Angelino and mentioned her service in the Clinton Administration. However, she greatly over-reached when she directly took on James by claiming he had a “radical right wing” radio talk show. James pushed back on that statement simply by saying she mischaracterised his show. Kevin James was the candidate with the ideas. He started the debate with serious passion but seemed to become more comfortable as it progressed, smiling more and perhaps relaxing a little more as the debate developed. He repeatedly laid the blame for L.A.’s problems on its current leaders, including all three of his elected opponents on stage, and casted himself as an outsider who can better fix L.A.’s problems. He castigated the incumbents for contributing to the L.A. film industry’s troubles through over-regulation and poor policies. He would not “bite” on simplistic questions about “plastic vs. paper bags” articulated to obtain predictable responses from all the other candidates. He reminded the audience that he had headed an important charity fighting AIDS. He did a great job.

Jan Perry did a very good job too. I was surprised by her response that she opposed the sales tax increase and her further statement that she also had signed the ballot argument against it. She spoke with passion about improving conditions in south Los Angeles, and she also focused, as did James, on the specific need for improving investment and creating jobs, especially on her accomplishments in developing new investment downtown (she has been a big backer of the L.A. Live area, which has been such a success) and the University Village plan to dramatically improve businesses and services around the University of Southern California.

The KABC debate questions were exclusively drawn up by the League of Conservation Voters and the League of Woman Voters. That was a mistake. The debate should have included representatives from the Los Angeles business and employment communities among the questioners, the film industry, trade unions, and more, and because of the absence of such representatives, the debate contained a lot of fluff on issues of secondary importance and not enough substance. Hopefully future debate formats will include more meaningful issues and force the candidates to address them, like jobs, taxes, spending and the economy, waste and fraud,