The latest Democratic Governor’s debate was held this morning at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. It was hosted by the Interfaith Coalition Building Blocks for Wilmington. The ICCBW is an ambitious group of ministers and other stakeholders who are looking to develop and implement strategies to work with at-risk kids and get them on a path away from the streets. Their current focus is Wilmington’s West Center City. The debate was moderated by John Watson who I gather is a host on WILM.
There was a good crew of both Markell and Carney people outside of the venue with many signs and literature. My guess is that the Carney crowd outnumbered the Markell crowd here. The same inside, I think that there was a Carney edge in the room, but both sides made a decent amount of noise after answers. Mike Protack was wandering around and I thought that this was one of the debates that would include him, but I was mistaken.
This debate was mostly focused on issues of poverty and violence in the City of Wilmington (which is not unique in this in Delaware) and to my mind the most unsatisfying of the debates I’ve gone to. Much of that dissatisfaction has to do with the nature of this conversation — poverty, violence, drugs, crime recidivism — do not lend themselves to easy policy or program wonkishness. Plus I think that these two politicians know that political interest and will is relatively low. Where the people who came to this wanted to hear how a new Governor would support the city (or any Delaware community acing these problems), what I heard was alot of careful concern about the problems, invocations of relationships with folks who are working on these issues (Carney was especially strong on this), and references to pieces of other programs promised (health care). This would be just fine — this really is complicated stuff — but as a forum lacked the specificity and strength of conviction of the other debates I saw.
Carney talked about all of the programs and the commissions he worked on with people in Wilmington, acknowledged how hard these issues really are, invoked some small, successful programs (The Way Home) and promised to work with the Mayor and City Council to support their work. Markell talked about capturing kids very early to get them on a better path, his work leading the Wilmington Urban League, joining forces with communities to help them better themselves, and bettering a business climate that might create more and better jobs. Both spent a good deal of time discussing support (but few specifics) for programs that would help transition people coming from prison back into their communities in a productive way (this is a current high priority issue for Wilmington churches). And both talked about individual and community involvement, but I heard Markell discuss this as a central point, not as a program adjunct.
Carney gave alot of push to the Hope Commission Report — not just because he was one of its co-chairs. The Hope Commission was supposed to help define Wilmington’s worst social issues and develop strategies (including implementation) to address those issues. I think that it did a fine job in defining much of the problem, but (my opinion again) is weakest on the solutions proposed. There simply isn’t much that is new in this report (and seems to be biased towards faith-based solutions that require taxes to fund) and there is little in it that will spur some political action to get some of these programs funded and implemented in some accountable way. Southbridge is the current pilot Hope Zone. (And ICCBW largely exists as an alternative path from that of the Hope Commission.) City politicians are pretty deftly using the Hope Commission as their front for answers to urban issues of poverty and so on.
This debate was different from the others in that both candidates had sharper elbows and directly critiqued each other’s job performance and experience (and Carney really hit Markell on the health insurance proposal noting that it has been a disaster in MA). It was still pretty civilized, and the real negativity towards each other seemed to come in the closing statements.
On balance, I do think that Carney did better here than did Markell, but mostly because he was able to do more substitution of relationships with folks in the room for serious solutions. That was a signal that more of the same (which is not much) would be forthcoming. I don’t know that Markell would do more, but I do think that a climate the is going to encourage more entrepreneurial spirit for businesses and communities has a better chance to change the game (he just needs to be clearer about his thoughts here).
There is another debate on Tuesday morning between these two to discuss housing issues. This one is hosted by the Delaware Hosing Coalition and is at 9:30Am at Theater N in Wilmington. If you want to go, you should register here: By phone at 678-2286, ext. 2, or by e-mail (with name) to dhc@housingforall.org.