Yeah, yeah, I know I wrote that the mayoral-forum coverage train ended with this week's soiree at Temple University, but after months and months of campaign observation, heading over to 6ABC's studios on Friday afternoon to check out the final debate was an inevitability.
Forgive me.
The hour-long debate offered one last chance to see Jim Kenney (D) and Melissa Murray Bailey (R) make their respective cases for why they're deserving of voters' support.
- RELATED STORIES
- Philly mayoral-debate season comes to its (near) end
- 8 noteworthy moments from the Philadelphia mayoral debate
- Candid-dates: 10 intimate questions for Melissa Murray Bailey
The debate – it will air at 11 a.m. Sunday – covered a slew of oft-discussed topics ranging from job creation, the minimum wage and staving off the brain drain to police/community relations, stop-and-frisk and the budget impasse in Harrisburg.
Among the highlights, as captured by PhillyVoice's live-tweet of the debate:
No, the debate itself didn't feature much confrontation (i.e. Bailey attacking Kenney in an attempt to build reputation-recognition and reverse decades of Democrats holding that second-floor office in City Hall.)
Over the next 10 days, she will focus on attending as many community meetings as possible to make her case. (That includes a Tuesday night stop at the Quizzo event I host at Billy Murphy's Irish Saloon in East Falls, which Kenney did in the spring as well. Stop by!)
"We hit five events in three hours last night, so we're still working really hard to get the message out to as many people as possible," she said. "People are glad that someone is coming out and hearing their voices. That's what my whole campaign has been about."
"It would generate a lot of money and I think it's hypocritical, frankly, to sell, tax and promote alcohol in the state when you don't do the other thing. You could move the wine into the Wegman's, Trader Joe's and some retail spots and utilize the space left for the selling of cannabis in the event it ever becomes legal." – Jim Kenney
After the event, Murray – who confirmed her campaign won't air television ads but will "likely" be on radio – was asked whether she called out Kenney enough to have an impact.
"He's talking about inputs and I'm talking about outcomes. We can do everything that sounds good, but if it doesn't deliver results, then it doesn't matter. It's just wasted money and wasted time." --Melissa Murray Bailey
"I didn't say I wanted them to. I said if the state ever legalized it, they have a closed operation that would be not conducive to selling to minors," he said. "The hardest place to get served underage is a Pennsylvania state liquor store.
"It would generate a lot of money and I think it's hypocritical, frankly, to sell, tax and promote alcohol in the state when you don't do the other thing. You could move the wine into the Wegman's, Trader Joe's and some retail spots and utilize the space left for the selling of cannabis in the event it ever becomes legal."
He also urged voters to head to the polls not only for his race, but for the state Supreme Court races.
"If we're going to be protected by some of the crazy stuff that comes out of Harrisburg, the state Supreme Court is the way to do it," he said, citing voter ID laws as an example.