Mayoral forum

I really made an effort to go into today's mayoral forum, held by the League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad, with an open mind. Of course, I already have opinions of both candidates, Milton Kern and Yvonne Johnson, but having never heard either of them speak, I wanted to give them both a chance to wow me.

And they did, though perhaps not in quite the way one candidate had hoped.

Johnson has been in politics for a while now and boy howdy does it show. Her opening remarks were thought out, not too packed with politicking but also clearly aware that her job there was to promote herself.

Kern, on the other hand, spent a good chunk of his opening 90 seconds rambling on about YouTube - a disclaimer of sorts, pointing out that his daughter was taking pictures and might just post them. The underlying message: don't come crying to me if you see you picture online. Uh, okey-doke.

The trend continued. In fact, I didn't really feel like I could adequately compare the positions of each candidate because Kern was so unprepared. He passed on questions about the Truth and Reconciliation Project and the budget because he hasn't read either yet. He also opted for a one word answer to a question about implementing a police review board - the answer, by the way, was no. Alternately, Johnson agreed that a police review board wasn't her preferred route, but she backed up her "no" by citing studies that show police review boards are less productive than human rights commissions, though the two can address the same issues. According to Johnson, the more combative atmosphere of police review boards often end in officers pleading the fifth, while human rights commissions have a tendency to foster actual communication.

Beyond the details of their platform disagreements (when Kern's was developed enough for comparison), I walked away from today's discussion with a little more insight about the people and the race:

1. Both candidates are being chivalrous about the whole thing, which I truly appreciate. Mud slinging is never pretty or productive, nor does it reflect any better on the slinger than the slingee.
2. Both candidates truly love Greensboro.
   
3. Kern repeatedly talked about bringing opponents together to shake things out, and emphasized that he is aggressive and thinks the city council should be more so.
4. Johnson repeatedly approached issues in a nurturing light, and emphasized her love of Greensboro and the people therein.