Results of the first Sunnyvale Candidate Forum

[mithriltabby]

Distilling my impressions of two hours of exposure to our local candidates:

For seat 1, it’s the incumbent Tony Spitaleri (currently mayor, elected by the city council) and challenger Pat Meyering. Spitaleri has never impressed me— in past council meetings I’ve attended, he’s always upheld the status quo and been resistant to change— and in this one he demonstrated a mastery of political doublespeak that I found very offputting. Meyering showed more interest in policy detail than Spitaleri, and spent a lot of time attacking his opponent as corrupt, claiming that Spitaleri was in the pocket of developers who donated to his campaign (and that there was a general problem with this on the City Council); he did it often enough that I found it offputting as well. (Meyering’s skills probably work well when he’s working as a prosecuting attorney, but they clashed with the atmosphere of the event. He was also the only candidate not to show up with campaign literature touting a web site, which struck me as a lack of preparation for the obvious.) I’m leaning toward Meyering but not thrilled with either candidate.

For seat 2, it’s the incumbent Chris Moylan (currently vice mayor, elected by the city council) and challenger Michael Anthony Flores. Chris Moylan demonstrated an impressive command of policy detail, had good green credentials to cite (including endorsements by the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club), and has usually been on my side on issues in the past four years. Flores showed good intentions, but didn’t have the detailed knowledge to back it up; most of his answers were rather vague. (Flores also suggested people visit Special Interest Watch, which is owned by the wife of former Sunnyvale mayor Tim Risch, so he’s already enmeshed in Sunnyvale politics and is not an outsider.) I think Moylan is a much stronger candidate.

In seat 3, John Howe is being termed out, so the newcomers are Penny Kelly (chairperson of my local neighborhood association) and Jim Griffith. Griffith is clearly a policy wonk and knows a lot about local issues and details; Kelly was refreshingly honest in saying she doesn’t have Griffith’s level of knowledge, but has plenty of experience in learning on the job. Much as I like Kelly personally, I think Griffith is better qualified for the position.

If we were using the single transferable vote to get the top three candidates instead of dividing them up with these arbitrary seats, I would currently be inclined to vote Moylan, Griffith, Kelly, Meyering, Flores, Spitaleri.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Kelly also doesn't know how to spell "its". (http://www.electpennykelly.com/5701.html)