Wards Corner candidates forum

Last night, the Wards Corner Civic League hosted a candidates forum featuring the candidates in the 87th House and 6th Senate districts. No cameras or recording devices were allowed so for once, I actually took notes 😉 The format essentially was two separate forums, with the two senate candidates – incumbent Republican Nick Rerras and Democratic challenger Ralph Northam – in the first segment and the two delegate candidates – incumbent Democrat Paula Miller and Republican challenger Hank Giffin – in the second. Each candidate was allowed a five minute opening statement, followed by a series of questions (four for the senate candidates, five for the delegate candidates) in which the candidates were given two minutes each to answer followed by a 1-minute each rebuttal. Kudos to the WCCL for at least allowing time for a rebuttal! The candidates were given two minutes each for a closing statement.

Most of the questions were on issues that I’ve heard the candidates speak before. (I guess I’ve gone to too many of these forums 😦 ) Two things I can always count on from Rerras: it’s his “honor” to _____ (he used that phrase seven times last night), and no matter where we are in Norfolk, he’s got some ties to that neighborhood, even if it’s just because he took the bus there. I don’t mean to pick on Rerras, but, well, that schtick is just tiresome to me.

I will pick on Rerras for one thing, though, and that is his flip-flopping on the issue of eminent domain. As I’ve said before, Rerras voted against the bill. At the Northside Civic League, he said he supported the bill, saying that 95% of the bill was good. At another forum, he offered that he only voted against it because his constituents asked him to. Last night, he was back to the bill being a bad one, saying it went too far.

Rerras has become the kind of politician that people think all politicians are: saying whatever they think the people want to hear in order to get votes. Wards Corner is the area of Norfolk probably most affected by the change in the eminent domain law in that no plan for redevelopment was in place prior to the law change. Rerras was emphatic in his disdain for the new law last night. He’s playing a dangerous game, saying one thing in front of one audience and another thing in front of a different audience. Perhaps in the days before the internet, politicians could get by with such nonsense. Not any more.

If there is one thing that I have a problem with, it has to be a lack of consistency. I may not agree with your position, but please be consistent. Rerras hasn’t done that – and he deserves to be held accountable for it.

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Funniest moment of the night: the delegate candidates were asked about the War on Cancer. Both of them said that the question should have been answered by Dr. Ralph Northam 🙂 (Of course, neither of them came up with what I thought was the obvious answer: stem cell research. )

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Finally, I mentioned yesterday that I would contact the Giffin campaign regarding his stand on campaign audits. I got a chance to chat with Giffin last night and he said he was a victim of the Yes/No format of the questions. (No surprise there.) He said that he was against the campaign audits if they would add another layer of bureaucracy to government and cost money. (I’m paraphasing here – didn’t take notes on this one.) As long as they didn’t cost money, he would support them.

He also mentioned his problem with the pre-K program. He said he’s not been convinced that the programs actually work – some data suggest they do, other data suggest they don’t – and until that is clear, he’s not willing to spend the money.