Ashe Calls for Debate with Weinberger

On Friday Tim Ashe used his campaign blog to challenge Miro Weinberger to face off in a series of one-one-one debates between now and round 4 of the Democratic caucus December 11.  This came two days after Ashe re-tweeted the link to the poll here which asks readers if they should debate.  The votes in this non-scientific poll have been running 10 to 1 in favor.  Of course my poll was never really a poll.  I never expected very many people to say “no, they shouldn’t  debate.”  It’s just a mechanism for allowing people to put pressure on the candidates and the party to have another debate, which I believe would be healthy and informative.

So far I am not aware that Miro has accepted the challenge.  From my perspective it seems like Ashe wants the debates more than Miro does and that makes sense.  Ashe is a better public speaker and probably has a greater mastery of the technocratic ins-and-outs of the issues by virtue of his signigicantly greater experience in public office, and his infinitely greater experience in elected office.  

Miro Weinberger has some high profile backers, but it’s hard to say whether folks truly support him, or just oppose Ashe.  Ashe lead Weinberger 471 to 390 after round 1 of voting November 13.  To get to 540 after round 3 at the end of the day, Miro had to pick up 150 votes from folks who originally wanted somebody else.   I wonder how many of those 150 voted for Miro simply because he wasn’t Ashe.  Briggs had a story in the Free Press today about how some Dems view Ashe as a threat and how some have thrown their support to Weinberger since it’s been down to just those two.  But for me the question remains.  Are people supporting the Weinberger campaign because they think he should be mayor, or because they think Tim Ashe should not?

Let’s take Philip’s endorsement for example.  It’s well written of course, but it’s short and tepid consisting of three boilerplate parts 1) The party is great and both candidates are capable; 2) Weinberger has reached out to supporters and has a plan; 3) Weinberger does not carry the baggage from Burlington Telecom that Ashe does.  The only part with teeth is the one about Weinberger not being Ashe.

I would like to see how Mr. Weinberger does in a head-to-head debate, because frankly as Burlington politicians go, I don’t know him from Adam, and I’ve been around a long time.  Can he handle the pressure?  Is he ready for prime time?  Doe’s he have the depth of knowledge to address the issues extemporaneously?  I think it’s perfectly legitimate for me to wonder.  I think it’s also perfectly legitimate to wonder who has the thicker skin.  This blog has not been particularly kind to Miro or Tim, yet Tim has at least shown enough calculation to promote it anyway when it serves his agenda.  He may take my jabs less personally that Miro does, undertanding from his other elections that punditry is largely theater.

I have no idea who I will ultimately support in March.  It may be one of these guys.  It may be Kurt.  It may be somone else.  But one thing is for sure- whoever the next mayor is will need a thick skin to survive.  If you can’t roll with the punches, forget it.