Though I didn't stay for the entire marathon forum last night I did catch the council candidates and these are my somewhat random observations:
Courtney Watson and Bob Flanagan were probably the most evenly matched of all the council candidates last night. That being said, Bob still came off as a bit dour while Courtney seemed more confident and relaxed. The only real "moment" between them came when Bob said that the county is facing a $16 million budget deficit for next year. Courtney immediately countered that this was not true. Later, when I mentioned to Greg Fox that I thought Courtney won that point, Greg said that Bob was right and that there is a "projected" $16 million shortfall for the 2011 budget. I don't think Bob said "projected" but Greg insists he did. I guess we'll just have to wait for the rebroadcast to see who's right.
Reginald Avery seems like a nice enough fellow but he is no match for Dr. Ball. Among the initiatives he said he'd tackle as a council person is eradication of the mosquitoes at Lake Elkhorn. That should win him a couple of votes in Owen Brown.
Tom D'Asto appears to making a pitch to the supporters of Alan Klein. He blamed "the developers" for every ill affecting the county. He said he'd make them pay for dredging Columbia's lakes since they were ultimately responsible. For a Repub he sure came off as anti business.
In District 3, the former incumbent Dennis Schrader seemed more in command of the issues than the current incumbent, Jen Terrasa. When asked about the possibility of imposing an ambulance fee in HoCo like MoCo, Dennis drew on his hospital experience in explaining his reasoning as to why he didn't support it. Jen simply said "my sense is that it is not a good idea."
Afterwards I asked a senior elected Dem how they thought Jen did and the answer was a lukewarm "reasonable."
Zaneb Beams looked very uncomfortable last night. The last time I watched her in a candidates forum she went right after Greg Fox's jugular. In contrast, last night she seemed a little out of it. When asked to identify the biggest environmental concerns in District 5 she answered "water and air" and then proceeded to talk about air and water pollution and it's effects on her pediatric patients. When it was Greg's turn to answer, he spoke of working with the agricultural community in the rural west to control runoff, once again demonstrating that he actually knows where his district is.
