Republican Rodney Davis made his usual opening statement, saying that:
- He's just a normal guy from Taylorville, not a Washington insider.
- He's the best qualified candidate because he knows how to get things done in Washington after working on Congressional staff for John Shimkus.
Democrat David Gill began with his usual stuff about being an ER doctor and wanting to counter the corporate special interests who have too much power in Washington.
I groaned when the first question was the cliche complaint about negative campaigning, but overall, I think the organizers did a great job picking topics. Davis played the persecuted martyr routine pretty hard, even though a majority of the spending by outside groups is on ads attacking his opponent. As Davis whined about the negative attacks against him, I couldn't help but remember that "Dr. Radical" was making another appearance outside the debate. That's the childish costume character Republicans send to hang around outside Gill events.
(He probably gets paid to do this)
(Group outside the debate protesting Davis' policies for the 1%)
Then the music started. Independent John Hartman brought up the Chuck Berry classic, No Particular Place to Go. I missed something he said but I think his point was about reducing pollution from cars. Hartman has a way of saying something you probably agree with that still leaves you scratching your head. Like the way he takes a good stand in favor of gay marriage, but with the oddly offensive comment that he can tell being gay isn't a choice by the way gay people talk with a lisp. OK then.
Chuck Berry was part of the high speed rail discussion, but not many songs have been written about trains. Kidding! I've been listening to this Old 97's album a lot lately.
Gill spoke in favor of building more mass transit and made the night's first mention of climate change. I thought Davis would talk more about working with local officials for corridor consolidation but he steered the conversation toward tax cuts. The biggest challenge for Springfield is that local leaders procrastinated a decision on where to route train traffic for so long that federal stimulus funding ran out. Calling for more tax cuts and less federal spending would seem to go against Springfield's need for more federal rail money, but no two contradictory ideas ever intersect in Rodney's America.
After all my griping about the State Journal-Register ignoring climate change in their political coverage, I have to give big props to Bernie Schoenburg for asking directly whether the candidates believe man-made pollution is causing the problem and how that influences their views on what action to take. I didn't expect that question to happen in a debate co-hosted by the Chamber of Commerce.
Once again, Rodney Davis dodged giving a direct answer, as he has many times during the campaign. He claims the debate is about how much man-made pollution is contributing to the problem. He, once again, didn't say where he stands in that debate, but it's not hard to figure out. Casting doubt about the scientific consensus is the strategy employed by oil interests like Exxon and the Koch brothers. They want the public to think there's still an unsettled debate within the scientific community. Both Exxon and Koch PAC gave the maximum allowable contributions to the Davis campaign, and he faithfully mimics their talking points.
Both David Gill and Hartman acknowledged the reality that the scientific community is nearly unanimous about the desperate need to reduce man-made climate change pollution. Both called out Davis for his misleading statement, and Davis, once again, failed to respond.
Getting back to gay marriage, Gill talked about his support by saying love is one thing there's never too much of in the world. And, just for a moment, I thought he might break out into the Burt Bacharach standard. I was sadly disappointed, but politicians singing is always a disaster.
The audience was pretty quiet but I heard a reaction to two statements. First, when Gill brought up that Davis was selected as a candidate by a handful of Republican Party leaders and that "we don't know what promises he made" to get the nomination during those closed-door meetings.
The biggest audience reaction of the night was to Rodney Davis claiming that he's the "only candidate on the stage" who will protect Social Security and Medicare. That was too much for people to take after Davis campaigning on repealing Obamacare, and introducing a plan that would essentially privatize Medicare. You could hear loud scoffing and laughter from the skeptical audience.
David Gill was aggressive. I think he did very well, but I'm obviously biased. I'll finish with one last song about the debate showdown. This one features a British band that used synthesizers, but before England jumped the shark with New Wave synth-pop.
