Okay my impressions of the debate and live blogging

First of all time flew, it didn't seem like it was an hour, I just started typing and kept going. As I wrote in the comments I was in the zen blogging zone...

All of the candidates seem like very nice personable people, all of them with the exception of Phil Copeland told me they read my blog. (Which was a surprise) That's not a slam towards Phil, he may very well read it, it just wasn't mentioned.

They also all seem very sincere in their belief that they want to make Lucas County a better place.

I'd never met Phil Copeland before, he talked a lot about his growing up poor in the inner city. He related a story about his reason for supporting the discretionary fund was when he was a young boy and played on a baseball team they didn't have the ability to have uniforms like some of the other teams did. Phil felt that using the discretionary fund for purposes like that helped build the community. It didn't appear he answered all of the questions that were asked of him, I think the two minute response created the most problems for him. His comment that got the most reaction was when he made the statement about the reason Maumee has been successful in job creation was done on the backs of Toledoans. Not a huge response because the crowd was supposed to refrain and they did a very good job in following that but kind of a half gasp/groan from the audience.

Miguel and I walked in with Pam Haynam and rode the elevator up to the main floor of the library. So I had a chance to have some brief chit chatting with her then. She stated she wasn't a polished debater but I think she did an excellent job in making her points. She kept her responses short and to the point, though she did talk faster that the other candidates so it was harder to live blog her comments. She focused on the "jobs, jobs, jobs" theme as well as pointing out that she feels she is a fiscal watch dog. One comment I didn't include was when she stated that her opponent was talking about how he could get along with Democrats if he was elected and her goal was to "watch the store". Pam's comment that got the most response was the second or third time she brought up George Sarantou sitting next to her at a Republican event stating that he was interested in using the Lucas County Commissioner race as a stepping stone to Toledo Mayor. It was a chuckle/laugh type response from the crowd.

I've had more of a chance to talk to Ben Konop than the other candidates, as in past experiences in hearing him speak he comes across as being energetic and wanting to move forward. He focused on the theme that he was the only candidate that had a plan and had vision for the County. He stayed on his message which also included stressing that he is not a career politician. He also talked about how Lucas County used to be in the past as far as jobs and standard of living and that he believes we can return to those days. Ben brought up his several of his ideas, the Cool County iniative, the regional funding, reduction of taxes for senior citizens. Ben interjected the most humor into the debate with his repeated question for George Sarantou and then Pam Haynam on the "would they still support/vote for Governor Taft/President Bush today issue. Ben handled the critiques of him from the other candidates very well demonstrating he can function well under pressure.

George Sarantou comes across as an experienced politican but not to the point where you feel he is not believable. He stressed his 24 years of experience as one of the primary reasons he would be a good County Commissioner and stated he was fiscally responsible as well. George also highlighted his work on the City of Toledo budget and his experience in working with Jeep and Dana as a few of the examples. I have to say he also does well under pressure, though I think he could have diffused Ben's question by answering it the first or the second time. However, he did get his largest response the time when he purposely ignored Ben's question and went on to talk about the Zoo levy. That was another chuckle/laugh response from the crowd. Meeting him in person he thanked me for being there and surprised me by telling me he has read my blog.

Tim Wagener surprised me when I talked with him after the debate. Not just because he stated he reads the blog but he remembered me picking on him about his website being so "red". He explained to me that red and white have always been his colors. Tim demonstrated he has a very good sense of humor not only in private but during the debate when he mentioned that "he had a website too" that got the largest crowd reaction as far as the laugh/chuckle moment for him. Tim stressed that he has experience and I do have say his response that he was not a career politician but a career public servant was the best response to Ben's statement on that as opposed to the rest of the panel. Tim appeared to be the most laid back of the candidates, but did not let statements go unanswered that he felt needed to be addressed, such as the comment that Phil Copeland made about how Maumee got jobs.

Live blogging is quite an experience and I hope all of you enjoyed it. As Fred LeFebvre can see I kept my promise as far as not spelling his name wrong and I thank him for mentioning my blog. A huge and I mean huge thanks to Michael Miller and the Toledo Free Press for allowing me to have the opportunity to do this and of course again thanks to the wonderful staff at the Toledo-Lucas County Library, the notebook computer that they let me use was awesome, a very nice Dell. If I'm invited back to cover the debates in October, I'd like to be able to tape or arrange to copy the debate so that I have an additional source of information to go back and review to see what I missed. I also want to thank all of the candidates for participating, this is such an important part of our political process and it was wonderful to be even a small part of it.

I also want to thank the crowd because they were very well behaved and did for the most part follow the request to not interrupt with applause. It created I think a better debate than what happened during some of the mayoral debates with the crowd yelling out comments.

Thus ends the first time in Toledo history of having a live blog going on during a political debate.

:-)