For people who study political debates, there is a general sense that they do not change many minds. Instead, they tend to support people’s enthusiasm, or lack of enthusiasm, to vote for candidates that they have chosen.
While Tuesday’s debate involving five of the nine mayoral was unlikely to change many votes, it will likely influence voter enthusiasm. Over the course of six rounds of questions having to do with everything from the airport to housing policy, candidates attempted to distinguish themselves from their opponents and solidify their support. The large crowd that saw the debate sponsored by WJLD in the Carver Theater saw candidate answers that ranged from highly technical to highly personal.
In general, debaters are rated according to their ability to answer the questions asked, to focus on specific answers, to demonstrate a mastery of information and to make compelling presentations. While no candidate is the perfect candidate, some are better than others at the different elements.
Daryl Johnson and Isis Jones — A
The hosts Daryl Johnson and Isis Jones were likable and inviting and brought enthusiasm to the pre-show and focused in on voting participation as essential to the legitimacy of the process.
James Williams — B+
The moderator was James Williams, a WJLD talk radio host. The debate was slow getting started and suffered from a variety of technical issues which left people with microphones that were not working. Fortunately, this caused the candidates to have to cooperate to see that everyone got their turn and the debate kept moving. After some confusion about order, cell phones and when it was appropriate for candidates to have rebuttals, the debate found a rhythm. Williams was especially good toward the end when things were getting hot and he was able to defuse some of the tension by speaking directly with the candidates.
Randall Woodfin — A
Incumbent mayor Randall Woodfin was confident and poised despite being a target for most of the candidates on the stage. In fact, the personal attacks gave him an advantage in that he was able to nearly double his time with rebuttals to the variety of attacks. His forewarning in the introduction that most of the statistics that others used would likely be lies was a useful framework when he went to answer many of the accusations against him. Of the candidates, he was the most optimistic of the five and had a unified story of improvement in key metrics.
Lashunda Scales — A-
Two-term County commissioner and former Birmingham council member Lashunda Scales: Sold herself as a fighter and played the role. She had an indexical knowledge of how and what happened and easily talked about a variety of issues. In the first part of the debate was a dominant figure. However, as the night wore on, she lost a bit of her cool competence and focused more on her dislike of the mayor, or at least the way he does things. Her best answers came in her closing and had to do with the way that Birmingham succeeds when it wants to succeed in Southside and Uptown and that it needed to bring some of this interest and resources to other neighborhoods.
Frank Woodson — A-
Birmingham pastor and non-profit executive Frank Woodson was an eloquent and experienced speaker. He was exceptionally skilled at getting outside of the specific policy discussions to focus on more general themes of accountability. He also excelled at humanizing problems in a compelling way. However, at some point his general “get is done” approach would have benefited from some specific solutions. He was able to stay out of the most virulent of the personal attacks.
Juandalynn Givan — B
Alabama State Representative Juandalynn Givan: Began with a focus on policies. However, as the night got going, she lost that focus. By the end, she had slipped into a variety of personal attack focused on the ways that Mayor Woodfin speaks. She was the most negative of the candidates, pointing toward the defunding of neighborhoods and BWWB loss as the result of mayoral inattention. She worked hard selling the Randemic as an explanation for a variety of issues—but did not speak specifically about them and ended up illustrating Woodfin’s claims that his opponents ran out of spite.
Brian K. Rice — C+
Ensley Real Estate Investor Brian K. Rice was both the best prepared and the least prepared for the debate. He was also the least poised speaker. Most of his answers started with a short history lesson which obscured the main points that he wished to make. By the time he got through the history, he was often left without time for a clear answer to the question. As the night wore on, he increasingly began to lose focus on the Birmingham city at large and focused on a property deal in Ensley that had gone wrong.
Each of the candidates demonstrated that they understand the Birmingham area and are sympathetic with its citizens. Mayor Woodfin and Commissioner Scales distinguished themselves as experienced hands at these sorts of debates with Mayor Woodfin demonstrating a cooler demeanor. Reverend Woodson provided a calm and mature presence in the debate.
