‘Smart Woman,’ Measured Man, Emotional Mayor

Debates are all about risk-reward factors. For some incumbents such as Bill Finch it’s not a question of whether you emerge as a winner, but getting out of there with no blood on the floor. Challengers Joe Ganim and Mary-Jane Foster had everything to gain against a mightily financed incumbent that allowed them a platform. Wednesday night’s debate had a high risk factor for the mayor with a high saturation media presence. Bill Finch is emotional, it can be a strength when he stays positive, it can be a weakness when he goes for the gutter. He tends to puke up what’s in his head. For a campaign handler it’s like a day at the rodeo. Bronco Billy can be a difficult ride. Say something stupid or have a meltdown and it’s preserved for everyone to see it. It came very close to happening.

(Full disclosure: in the 1990s I was either a campaign or public relations adviser to all three candidates).

The opening remarks of the debate were matter of fact, the candidates made their points, Finch on development progress, Ganim focusing on bread and butter issues such as taxes and crime, Foster emphasizing an honest choice for change against better-known opponents.

For many among the crowd of nearly 400, including a thick media presence, it was an opportunity to see and hear Foster for the first time. This was not new for Foster. She had mixed it up pretty good with Finch in 2011 as his primary opponent. When Foster is on her game she’s an effective public speaker. Long before she came to Bridgeport she was a trained actress who knows what it’s like to be in front of cameras and an audience without dramatics. She also has a law degree which can be helpful in crafting arguments.

As she made her case before the audience and cameras, a new observer to city elections sitting in media row who had never seen Foster before texted a statement, she’s “smarter” than the two guys. Finch and Ganim, by the way, are smart too but with drastically different styles. Finch can be dramatic, Ganim stoic. Finch is driven by emotion, Ganim is not. Finch is a policy wonk, Ganim is a pragmatist.

Ganim as a politician making a point knows how to push buttons, dropping in a line or two here and there to try to exploit weakness and provoke an outburst. For the most part, however Ganim stuck to a measured strategy focused on contrasting his tax and public safety record against Finch’s record. Ganim, as has been the case since he entered the race, absorbed the blows of his corruption past without being defensive.

It is galling to Finch that he has a contest against Ganim. They are not buds. As the debate progressed the candidates exchanged several sharp barbs with Finch holding his own and staying composed, no harm, no foul.

Then debate moderator Ken Dixon threw a grenade into the works. (Full disclosure: Dixon has been a friend for nearly 40 years and an old fishing buddy.)

Dixon is one of the longest-serving journalists at the Connecticut Post with massive experience covering elected officials. He has a nose for BS. He cannot stand liars. He has a sour disposition toward politicians. If he interprets basic information is being withheld from the public via his journalistic sensibility, he’s gonna take a bite out of you. He bit down pretty hard in a strident exchange with Finch.

Over the weekend, the city suffered another shooting. Dixon drew the weekend rotation in what is traditionally a skeleton crew. He sought information from the police department. It was not forthcoming. One of the problems of highlighting lower crime rates is it can become buyer’s remorse if there’s a surge in violent crime. For months and months Finch had highlighted the city’s lower crime rate, but then a surge in shootings and murders this summer provided an opening for Ganim and Foster to challenger the mayor’s veracity on crime stats.

It had been difficult to receive crime stats from the police department. Seeing they needed to do something about it, the mayor’s handlers established a weekly media session with police officials to review crime information and provide updates on cases.

The highlight of the debate for pure entertainment was a harsh exchange between the mayor and Ken Dixon who snapped at Finch for the lack of crime information from the police department. Dixon, his voice rising, went after Finch hard stating “are you going to let police reports be reviewed on a daily basis?

Finch replied  “Let me do the best I can answering three opponents now” (Ganim, Foster, Dixon), asserting no such order was given to withhold information. Finch also suggested The Connecticut Post doesn’t know what it’s doing. It was an uncomfortable exchange and there was a breath-holding moment the forum could completely unravel with perhaps Finch walking out. He regained himself. Dixon toned it down and the forum moved on.

Finch generally likes dissent when he’s doing the dissenting. He also feels he’s not gotten a fair shake from the newspaper especially in a battle with an opponent who did seven years in the joint, maintaining the Post has been soft on Ganim who has taken the initiative on free media events proposing police substations, an office of Public Integrity, public financing of local races, even repairing a fence near a public housing project that had been a perceived access point for perpetrators.

Some of what Ganim is doing is BS but it is what campaigns do to gain attention and traction.

Dixon had a moment too when he made a tough and relevant observation about Ganim wondering if Ganim’s public apology January 1 after 14 years opining he did nothing wrong was an admission that he lied under oath. Ganim acknowledged bad decisions then pivoted to asking for a second chance without sounding defensive.

So now we’re in the thick of the last weeks before the September 16 Democratic primary. Finch managed to avoid disaster Wednesday night and he’s still well positioned given the advantages of incumbency. But it also shows these debates come with trapdoors the incumbent must avoid.