Four candidates in the race to be D.C.’s next mayor met in the School of Media and Public Affairs Friday morning in one of the last debates before Tuesday’s primary.
Front-runners Linda Cropp, longtime chair of the D.C. City Council, and Councilman Adrian Fenty squared off with Councilman Vincent Orange and former CEO Marie Johns and answered a barrage of questions about education, crime, city development and emergency preparedness in the debate co-hosted by GW and Washington Post Radio in the Jack Morton Auditorium.
When asked about proposals to renovate and erect D.C. buildings as part of a comprehensive plan, all the candidates recommended the process be slowed down to allow greater input by District residents.
Cropp said she would delay the plan until greater citizen input is heard while Fenty suggested that the plan be put off until January when a new mayor and D.C. council is in place.
Orange, encouraged D.C. to “slow down the process and get more input, but to continue the path to an economic resurgence.”
Panelist Mark Plotkin, GW alumnus and WTOP radio personality, aggressively questioned the candidates on D.C. representation in Congress.
Plotkin asked candidates if they knew the position of prominent House members such as minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House majority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Judiciary Committee ranking minority member John Conyers (D-Mich.).
Orange mistakenly referred to House minority leader Pelosi as the House whip while mayoral candidate and former Verizon CEO Johns admitted to not knowing who Boehner was.
Johns said she would “know what I need to know when I need to know it.”
Plotkin chastised Fenty for not knowing that Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) is the chair of the House Judiciary subcommittee that will consider Thursday on the Voting Rights Act for D.C., legislation that could give D.C. residents a vote in Congress.
“How should you be mayor if you don’t even know … somebody who controls our status and our future?” Plotkin said.
Panelist Beverly Kirk, ABC7/NewsChannel 8 anchor, tried to draw the debate away from the topic of a voting D.C. Congressional representative.
“If I live over the river, I don’t care whether we have a vote (in Congress) if I can’t put food on the table,” Kirk said.
Candidates listed their initiatives to improve the impoverished areas of the city. Fenty offered a summary of the issue after listing his plans.
“I think we’re saying the same thing, but no one gets things done,” Fenty said. He stressed the need to have more police officers patrolling the streets of D.C. but said education would be his first priority if elected mayor.
Cropp, known as a consensus builder on the D.C. council, stressed the need to involve all D.C. residents and emphasized D.C.’s lack of voting representation in Congress.
“It’s not just about being invited to dinner, but also getting to eat at the table,” Cropp said.
Johns said improving the D.C. public schools would be her top priority, especially in early childhood education programs.
Senior David Ceasar, who is The Hatchet’s Senior News Editor, was invited to ask a question at the debate. He pressed the candidates on the matters of homeland security and crisis coordination as the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approached.
Cropp emphasized the importance of all D.C. residents knowing an exact plan of how to evacuate in case of an emergency situation, while Fenty said he would install an Internet-based preparation and notification system to keep D.C. residents prepared and informed for an emergency situation. Johns noted that not all D.C. residents have Internet access and stressed the need to broaden the alert.
About 60 people, including candidate campaign volunteers, attended the debate, which was broadcast live on ABC7/NewsChannel 8 and Washington Post Radio.
Media Relations Director Tracy Schario said that the turn-out was lower than the last debate hosted by GW at the Jack Morton Auditorium because Friday’s event occurred during business hours.
-David Romash contributed to this report.
