We’ve completely rewrote this article and have added a BreakDown at the end. This article is complete.
SouthsideCentral is LIVE! at tonight’s Mark Warner & Ed Gillespie joint appearance at the Institute. Be sure to refresh this page often for the latest happenings, photos, and commentary.
Tonight’s event starts at 7 PM. Our LIVE! coverage will begin around 6:50 PM.
Let’s get started. Here’s how it works. The candidates flipped a coin to see who goes first, and Mark Warner won. Each candidate gets 28 minutes, and that includes a 10 minute opening statement. The other candidate is out of the room during that time. Questions will come from Len Stevens (WSET) , Trevor Metcalfe (R&B) and Bob Gibson (Sorensen Institute). Bob’s questions will be selected from questions submitted by the audience.
600 seats were set up, and we’ve got about 200 filled. Sherman Saunders, Lee Vogler & Steven Gould are the only elected Danville officials here. James Snead & Jessie Barksdale are here from the county.
Mark Warner is introduced to applause. The audience has been told there’s no applause during the candidates’ time.
We’re underway. Mark Warner gets 30 minutes, then Ed Gillespie.
Warner starts his 10 minute speech. Generic campaign speech as expected, throwing in the occasional Southside reference. Very little about Gillespie until one minute to go. Warner sounds tired, but he’s quite calm & relaxed.
600 seats, about half filled. Sherman Saunders, Lee Vogler & Steven Gould are the only elected Danville officials here.
Panel Question one is on Obamacare. Warner immediately goes into “what went wrong”. Questions about the minimum wage, the ISIS threat. Warner turns the ISIS question into a Grover Norquist mention somehow. Warner’s pattern is 90 seconds on his positions, 30 against Gillespie’s. Question on Danville’s broken economy and how to add jobs here. Warner runs out of time and his segment ends. Warner seemed at home in this format and kept things going smoothly. All of his answers were the same answers we’ve all heard before.
Ed Gillespie starts his 30 minutes with his opening statement. Immediately, he tries to tie Warner to Obama with that “97%” line. Ugh. Now talking about his five part plan for the rest of his segment.
Gillespie’s stack of questions are different from Warner’s and they get quite um… weird. There’s a euthanasia question from Len Stevens. Gillespie says state issue, doesn’t support the concept. Then he segues into anti-Obamacare. Then he backtracks and says that he’s sorry for the people’s conditions that Stevens mentioned in the question. I want these 4 minutes of my life back.
Gillespie asked what’s the difference between his 97% claim against Warner vs. Republican voting together just as much. He says he’d support a bill only if it benefits Virginians no matter what party leaders say. We have an Internet sales tax question. I’m not sure that Gillespie came close to answering if he supported it or not. Ebola question. Seriously, a friggin Ebola question. Gillespie says he’s concerned that we’re not prepared. Wants to ban flights from ebola outbreak countries. Gillespie says he would only serve 2 terms if elected. Time’s up.
Gillespie handled himself quite well but he was too damned laid back for somebody that’s way down in the polls. I wanted to see him aggressive and taking charge of the questions, telling me why he was better. Maybe he was tired, too.
Let’s do a quick BreakDown…
- The format sucked because neither candidate faced each other, but it’s the only one that Mark Warner’s team would agree to and that’s perfectly understandable based on strategy.
- It would have been a lot better if both candidates faced the same stack of questions. Whoever won the coin toss to become Contestant #1 had to handle the big issues, while Contestant #2 got a bunch of oddball questions.
- Mark Warner was out the door at 7:32PM and Ed Gillespie was gone at 8:03PM. He almost had to drag a woman asking about uranium mining. Sigh. I know.
- Sign Wars were won by Ed Gillespie, but it was by default. Nothing from the Warner side. Do they really think that they’ve got this locked up already? The Republican blogs and the RPV are trying to say that Warner seems on the offensive and is fighting hard. Tonight, he was laid back and chilling. Weird.
- 300 people came out for this? That’s sad. Unfortunately, that’s probably good for here.
- Warner’s insertion of Southside places and things seemed almost forced and unnatural. Gillespie didn’t even try. Do either of them really care about this area that much? It reminded me of Jim Webb’s constipated look that he always had on appearances here.
- Bob Gibson is as cool as he always is. Len Stevens is a TV anchorman. Trevor Metcalfe did a great job tonight. Yep, he gets a SouthsideCentral compliment!
- The Institute pulls off yet another big event like this perfectly, down to the small refreshment area in the atrium.
Overall, each candidate said what they’ve now said hundreds of times. This was another stop on the Mark & Ed roadshow and I learned nothing new about the candidates… if there’s anything new to learn. The audience was mostly candidate supporters, but I’m hoping that some undecided voters were able to lock in their choice tonight.
Leonard must be sleep cause he ain’t here . Or he can’t keep up
I decided to stay home and watch on TV. I was extremely disappointed with the format-glad I was home watching. Bruce, you say this was the Warner campaigns idea-hard to believe but if you say it is so, well, I am disappointed that they chose to do it this way. With the lead he has over his opponent, and after just having a real forum just the other day, I understand it. Mark Warner is very comfortable in Southside. I did not see his mentioning of places in Danville as forced or got the feeling that he was uncomfortable. He is extremely knowledgeable of Southside and our problems. He did a good job of answering questions-and he got real ones! The panel should be ashamed of the questions that they asked the challenger. Gillespie answers the question regarding Republican’s high party line voting by saying he will vote for what benefits Virginian’s most. That is political speak for: Of course, my GOP always presents what is best for Virginian’s so I will vote party line.
In this format we would have been better served if both candidates were giving the same questions (directed properly to each one). That would have allowed people watching to understand how they differ from each other. Instead we get-“I answer the question and tell you why you should send me back” vs. “Wow, these are easy questions and I will tell you I will only stay 2 terms if I win”. Wow! I feel shortchanged on this one. I have been to many “forums” here that I believe were very worthwhile. This one missed the mark.
My observations are similar to Bruces’. I am surprised at the crowd. I figured the die hard political folks would have been there to support their candidates. There were lot of folks that usually attend events like this that I did not see. Lots of chairs were empty. Even some media did not attend this event. So what does that tell you. I guess they feel folks have already made up their minds and don’t want to hear any more. But Danville and Pittsylvania County people deserved to have them come here. We needed to hear what they had to say. We should be grateful that Bob and his group arrange events like this for us in Danville to have. Last week I attended the event they had. Very low turn out at that but well put on event and very informative. Bill Bolling, Shannon Valentine and Charles Hawkins were here. I guess people don’t care to hear but when time comes to complain they will be around.
Warner came across as a bumbler like his boss Obama, apparently clueless that he has been in Washington for six years causing the problems he now seeks to fix if we’ll only give him our votes again. Fat chance.
Are you better off than you were six years ago?
NO!
Why should anyone vote for Warner, he has failed us for the last time.