Project: LOOP

I went to an aldermanic debate on Monday. The runoff elections are next Tuesday, so I thought it might be cool to check out a couple of the candidates. In the second ward which I’m pretty sure Columbia is in, Bob Fioretti is challenging the incumbent Madeline Haithcock, who was appointed alderman in 1992.

I served as an usher at Soka Gakkai which is a pretty cool building. From talking to one of my fellow ushers, it is a sort of community house built by a Buddhist organization. The building is really nice and new, and there is a huge auditorium which is where the debate was held.
The debate was really interesting despite the fact that I know nothing about the issues that face the second ward. Fioretti spoke much more clearly and forcefully in my mind. Haithcock seemed almost annoyed that she had to deign to actually campaign, rather than just be appointed the seat. Fioretti continually attacked Haithcock for selling the community out to greedy developers, while her response was pretty much, I use the money from developers for the ward.

The problem that I had was with the organization of the event, which called for 1 hour of the candidates debating, and then another hour of pre-approved questions from the audience. The whole thing was way too long. The candidates seemed exhausted towards the end of the ordeal, and even though both sides had vocal supporters, they also seemed tired and bored.