Mayoral Candidates Square Off

The Republic is reporting some snippets from the Mayor Candidate Debate in front of the Downtown Mesa Association - EDIT: Here is the Tribune's take as well. Sounds like Scott Smith was in there throwing some heat at the other candidates who have been on the council. And once again, it sounds like Walters is going to be the defensive one.

This will continue to haunt Claudia Walters unless she finds a different way to talk about it. No one wants to hear what the council does and doesn't have. They want to know what you are going to do about it. And we have heard the the talk about the "learning curve" enough. We get it, you think being on the council is hard.

Griswold does a better job of talking about the right things to fit what his audience wants to hear. However, as a regular Mesa resident, I'd rather hear more about what his plans are for the bonds and the other needs of Mesa instead of how our "night life" is going.

Both of the incumbents seem to admit that there is a problem, but neither of them are willing to admit that its at all their faulty or they had anything to do with it. They have had 5 and 8 years to fix this thing and yet, here we are with the same problems. It looks like Scott Smith is going to be able to drive the debate because they can do nothing but attempt to defend their record.