All I know is that a Hoy won the Mayoral Debate

Last Tuesday the Salem Reporter and Salem City Club held a debate between the two candidates for Mayor. One thing is clear: Hoy won.

I can say that with complete confidence because the candidates were incumbent Mayor Chris Hoy and his unrelated opponent, Councilor Julie Hoy. 

Given Chris' much longer political experience, and his incumbency, I figured that he would dominate the debate. But though I think Chris was sharper and more on point with his answers to questions posed by people from the sponsoring organizations, which earned him a win in my utterly personal opinion, Julie performed better than I thought she would.

You can watch the debate via a Capital Community Media video. 

Chris is a progressive. Julie is a conservative.

This was reflected in their differing takes on the City of Salem budget problems. Chris doesn't want to cut any current programs, saying that more revenue is needed to preserve those programs. Julie put more of an emphasis on living within budget limitations, though she was open to revenue raising options such as a dedicated tax for funding the library.

One reason she favors such a tax could be her wanting public safety, police and fire department operations, to be the top funding priority. Yet Julie was impressed with how much citizen support the library has been getting. So a dedicated library tax would make it possible to spend more on public safety from the city's general fund without further reducing popular library services.

Interestingly, Chris said that he'd be open to a dedicated tax for public safety. Since he worked as a deputy sheriff for many years in Clackamas County, support for the police is part of his political DNA. Also, he may believe that a tax dedicated to public safety would have a better chance of being approved by voters than a general tax for city services. 

Several times Julie shied away from directly answering a question by saying that she needed to study the issue more, would rely on people who know more about it than she does, or simply misunderstanding the question -- such as when she referred to financial capital when a question asked about spending political capital. 

On the plus side, Julie sounded pleasingly humble when she said that she wasn't the smartest person in a room and would listen to more knowledgeable people. Chris came across at times as being unwilling to admit to mistakes and weaknesses, as when he defended his decision to not refer an employee payroll tax to voters, who defeated it big time after an initiative petition put it on last November's ballot.

I think he might have been better served by looking straight at the camera and saying something like, "I thought it was the right thing to do -- not asking citizens to vote on the payroll tax -- but I now realize how wrong I was. Live and learn. That's what I promise to keep doing if you reelect me as mayor."