The Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC) hosted a debate last night between between the primary candidates for Treasurer. Having read so much lately about poorly run debates, I've got to hand it to ACDC, the hosts, the candidates, and audience were all very polite, respectful, and the debate was very, very well run (props to excellent moderator Christian Dorsey). Challenger Bob James is taking on 24-year incumbent Frank O'leary, and I'm sure everyone who reads RK regularly is already intimately aqauinted with the race. So here i'm just going to provide a quick analysis of the debate.As a relative newcomer to Arlington politics, I'm fairly impartial. But there was a clear winner last night.
The winner after just 2 rounds: Frank O'Leary.
The candidates were each asked about their qaulifications. I'll say that as Dem up-and-comings go, James has a good resume. He's been active with ACDC and he's even been state party Black Caucus Chair. But when compared to O'Leary's long tenure as incumbent and considering that treasurers around the country visit Arlington to learn how to be good at their jobs, it begs the same question that was on a lot of minds last night... Why?
James's main point last night seemed to be the reiteration of "Dump the Decal." He believes the decal fee is a waste of taxpayer money and a "deceptive tax." You know what? He's probably right. But... O'Leary's rebuttal was the obvious one: the County Board did away with it for 10 years in the '90's at his urging, and he agrees in theory, but it's a Board decision, not his, and they chose to bring it back.
There were a lot of questions and accusations, mostly centring around James's tax deliquincy, which he blatently apologized for (good move on his part). However, the tempo was "owned" by O'Leary, and a lot of the time seemed to be James having to respond to that. James seemed thrown off, trying to acheive a rhetorically powerful tone, but failing in that he couldn't decide whether to project certitude or be everyone's friend while wandering the aisles with his wireless mic. O'Leary seemed to be a genuniely earnest, if nervous, older man, and I think it played well for him - though I believe it was genuine and not his "style."
James did bring up a bigger issue of civil liberties that he could have used to regain tempo, but he faltered in the prusuit. O'Leary's crusade is to collect every tax dollar from everyone, everywhere. James accuseds him of being heavy-handed, especially regarding his bill in congress that would authorize states and localities to collect taxes from federal refunds. He might be right, it might be a civil liberties issue, but at the same time, do you have the right to those liberties if you don't fulfill your one contractual obligation to the government? A question for a different time.
The most interesting part of the debate came at the end when the candidates asked questions of each other.
James asked O'Leary about his employee who embezzled $67K. O'Leary's response was that he wore a wire to catch the guy, and that the man served 2 years and they got all the money back. Not only that, but O'Leary instituted a strict review policy of reimbursements (the method that was used). James's rebuttal was that he would institute an "Integrity Officer." It was difficult to see, though, how it was a different approach.
O'Leary asked James how he would improve on collection efforts. He basically said he wouldn't, that's it's too good already (see above about heavy-handed tax collecting). Not a bad response, but it left something lacking.
Overall, it was an interesting debate, but the theme of the evening couldn't be avoided: Why is James running? O'Leary came across as more qualified and more earnest. James came across as a fairly desperate challenger who was clinging to very flimsy attacks.
I'm going to refrain from a lot of judgements other than to say the obvious which is that Frank O'Leary won the debate hands-down. Despite this, such a low-turnout primary could swing either way. A debate in front of ACDC probably has almost no bearing on the outcome of the election, especially so soon before the primary. So it will come down to who does a better job mobilizing volunteers and getting out voters. My money's on O'Leary, but I think it'll be closer than what most Arlingtonians think.