Incumbent Mayor Thomas Menino defended his politics and long tenure against his three challengers at the first official debate of the 2009 Boston mayoral election Wednesday night at the WBZ-TV studios in Allston.
The majority of the debate was a three-on-one attack against Menino, who defended himself with citations of improvements made to neighborhoods and ‘green job training’ implemented during his tenure as evidence that he should continue to lead Boston in the future.
The debate came in preparation for the Sept. 22 preliminary election that will narrow the mayoral candidate field of four ‘- Menino, business owner Kevin McCrea, City Councilors-At-Large Mike Flaherty and Sam Yoon ‘- to two.
The debate, moderated by WBZ-TV political analyst John Keller, began with a focus on crime in the city. Flaherty called into question the mayor’s statement that the crime rate was lower than it had been in 40 years.
‘As a former prosecutor, the only one that actually has prosecutorial experience in this race, I know that crime stats don’t tell the whole picture,’ Flaherty said, describing his conversations with families whose lives have been affected by crime.
‘Clearly we are not doing enough,’ he said.
McCrea, owner of Wabash Construction in the South End, launched some of the most stinging accusations against the other candidates, portraying himself as a political outsider.
‘We’ve had a corrupt City Hall,’ he said. ‘Yet the three politicians here on stage haven’t done a single thing about that.’
In a press conference following the event, Yoon disputed the notion that a city councilor could not bring reform to City Hall.
‘Whoever becomes mayor has incredible legal and statutory authority to affect change,’ Yoon said. ‘It requires someone who has the skills and background to do reform.’
Yoon said he would not want to hold the enormous influence Menino currently has over the city if he were to be elected mayor.
‘This is not the kind of system we want for modern 21st century government,’ he said.
‘Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, you have too much power,’ Yoon said.
McCrea and Menino had one of the more contentious exchanges of the night. While discussing real estate, McCrea held up a deed and accused the mayor of selling city property assessed at $100,000 for $5,000 to a City Hall worker who had contributed to Menino’s campaign.
‘This is the type of corruption going on at City Hall right now under the auspices of our political figures here,’ McCrea said.
‘Kevin, that’s nonsense, you know that, and my record shows it,’ Menino said.
After the mayor defended the land sale, Yoon launched another attack at the mayor’s integrity by paraphrasing Mark Twain.
‘There are lies, damned lies, then there are statistics,’ he said.
The final issue of the debate was the city budget. McCrea claimed that the mayor was ‘dishonest’ about the state of the city’s finances and said layoffs Menino had warned of when promoting a Hotels and Meals tax never occurred.
‘This is not true, Kevin,’ Menino said. ‘I’ll give you a lesson in budget management because you don’t understand it.’
When asked during the press conference if he felt Menino had talked down to him, McCrea said, ‘The mayor talks down to everyone.’
The four candidates will appear today at a MassVote forum at 6:30 p.m. at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury. The final debate between all four candidates will be Sept. 10, followed by an Oct. 19 debate between the two candidates who win the most votes in the primary.
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