At the first debate, mayoral candidates largely went through the motions. Talking points with little emotion.
That changed during a second debate Wednesday at Jacksonville University.
There were accusations, agitation and a lot of wry smiles. Most of it done by the two front-runners.
Less than 10 minutes in, Republican Lenny Curry took the first shot. He claimed Mayor Alvin Brown cut 147 officers in his budgets along with crime-prevention and intervention funding.
“I’m actually going to fund it,” said Curry.
He later asserted if Brown was serious about pension reform, he should have taken former Mayor John Peyton’s plan — a deal, he said, would have saved $1 billion.
The attack caused both Brown and City Council member Bill Bishop to jump. Bishop wanted to “correct” his fellow Republican, saying the Peyton deal didn’t go far enough and never was going to pass council.
Brown enthusiastically nodded during the response, then said the Peyton plan didn’t touch unfunded liability — the $1.6 billion problem — and only saved $700 million. His highly touted plan saved $600 million more, he said.
“You don’t need to be an accountant to look at the numbers,” Brown said, a jab at Curry’s profession, which he has used as a selling point to voters.
Curry smiled and tried to respond, but the moderator stopped him and moved on to a question about the port.
Except Curry wasn’t done.
When it was his turn to answer the port question, Curry circled back to pensions. He claimed Brown’s plan obligated $40 million a year “without a way to pay for it.”
Brown countered, “That’s false and you know it.”
Curry then turned back to the camera.
“The port, yes, I believe we ought to …” he began, before cracking a smile.
The exchange and gamesmanship drew laughter from the crowd at Jacksonville University.
Later, the two were asked about negative campaign ads that have recently been running.
A Brown ad bashing Curry for his affiliation with river polluters, a Curry spot laying blame on Brown for a rise in violent crime.
Asked to substantiate his advertisement’s claim about Curry, Brown didn’t and instead talked about the benefits of the St. Johns River and its importance.
A smiling Curry then said that while it was “full of untruths” he was proud of one aspect of it — it identified him as the former Republican Party of Florida chair, a direct appeal to city conservatives.
Curry also didn’t back down from his ad about increasing crime or the timeframe he used to make comparisons.
The ad uses statistics from the first six months of 2010, a year before Brown took office. Curry said the ad showed a fair comparison, but Brown just shook his head and smiled.
Bishop and Omega Allen, a fourth candidate excluded from last week’s debate, then blasted the front runners on their negative advertising.
Bishop said he hasn’t resorted to the tactic, calling it “the last vestiges of small-minded people who have nothing to say and no vision.”
He called for candidates to tell the people what they’re for instead of what they’re against, while Allen said everyone taking part in the negativity needed to “clean up their act.”
The back-and-forth wasn’t limited between Brown and Curry, though.
On city finances, Bishop said the fiscal problems meant figuring out what to live without or finding a revenue source but “all the 90-day audits aren’t going to find it.” Curry’s pushed for such an audit if elected.
Curry broke format toward the end to ask Bishop a question. Is it possible he could be against dredging for the port? Both Brown and Curry earlier responded they were in favor of it, while Bishop said it depended on the numbers and environmental impact.
The directness the second time around didn’t seem to faze Bishop. His answer didn’t change.
Allen took her shots at Brown, too, the most prominent one about the mayor not really taking a 20 percent cut in pay since he hired an economic development officer “to do economic development that we don’t see actually developing.” The comment drew applause from the crowd, but Brown immediately defended himself, calling the assertion he didn’t cut his pay “falsely wrong.”
Curry again went on the attack, claiming Brown said he wouldn’t take a pension, but did.
Brown responded with more talking points about the benefits of his pension reform as a whole, before the moderator assisted. Brown then said he was in a state plan, later leading to an off-microphone exchange with Curry about having correct facts.
In the candidates’ last pleas in the closing minutes, they largely went back to script.
Allen called herself the underdog, the longshot ticket that paid off the best.
Bishop said he was the most experienced and wouldn’t need on-the-job training.
Brown relied on adhering to the promises he kept his first four years, asking for four more.
And Curry said Bishop and Brown had spent too much time “living on the taxpayer dollar” and better days were ahead with him in the lead.
Only two of the candidates will move on from Tuesday, should none of them reach the heralded 50 percent-plus-one mark from voters.
If early polls hold true, it’ll be Brown and Curry in an extended one-on-one until May. If Wednesday was any indication, it could be a contentious run-off.
@writerchapman
(904) 356-2466