Strong debate energizes Mayor Menino’s foes
September 12, 2009
By: Richard Weir
Sensing blood in the water, Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s rivals said yesterday that their relentless, three-pronged attack during Thursday’s Herald-FOX 25 debate had left him wounded and them charged up…..
Jim Spencer, media director for City Councilor Sam Yoon, said having his man, who’s 39, seated next to the 66-year-old mayor at a cramped table in the Fox studio afforded viewers with a stark contrast of the “the old and the new.”
Larry DiCara, a former City Council president who ran for mayor in 1978, said he thought Yoon and Flaherty performed much better Thursday than in the first televised debate. “They were crisper, better prepared and more relaxed,” DiCara said.
During the hourlong debate, Yoon ridiculed the four-term mayor, likening him to the empty desk seen in Menino’s new TV ad, and said he lacked “a sense of urgency” in fixing the schools.
McCrea accused Menino of selling off city land at hugely discounted prices while grossly underfunding the budgets of school nurses.
Flaherty also assailed the mayor for having 24,000 students drop out of school on his watch and failing to reach a contract with the city’s firefighters that would ensure random drug testing.
Menino responded to the attacks, sometimes with smiles and smirks, other times by dismissing them as “ridiculous.” He rattled off several programs the city created to retain at-risk students but acknowledged there is room for improvement.
But the mayor opted against returning fire or going mano-a-mano with his foes. Though cut and cuffed around, Menino left the ring on his own feet, said several political observers.
“At one point, it was like a gang tackle. For a solid 10 minutes, it was just a barrage,” said City Councilor John Tobin, adding that while Menino’s challengers landed “some great jabs,” none scored “a knockout punch.”
Added former City Councilor Michael J. McCormack, “You have to knock the champ out, and that did not happen.”
