Last night’s Atlanta Press Club debate between U.S. Rep David Scott and former state Sen. Donzella James was fairly typical in that it unspooled like a boxing match in which the fighters spend most of their time in the clutch.
That’s not to say there’s no value in the APC debates. But, speaking as one who’s served as a panelist before, the time is so limited and the format so rigid that it’s rare for anyone – candidate or reporter – to land a punch.
Still, despite their shortcomings, the debates allow you to get a sense for the candidates’ rhetorical styles and they hint at campaign issues for further research.
Tuesday’s debate mainly saw Scott defending his record as a congressman, rather than James establishing why Democratic primary voters should choose her to represent the 13th District – a hideously Franken-mandered jurisdiction that wraps around the southern rim of Atlanta, including portions of six metro counties.
Scott has been under fire since being named one of the “22 most corrupt members of Congress” last year by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He earned that distinction by falling a reported $167,000 behind in his taxes at the same time he was paying family members hundreds of thousands of dollars for working on his political campaigns.
But you wouldn’t have known any of that was a big deal from watching the debate, where time constraints allowed Scott to give the issue a quick brush-off.
More attention was paid to Scott’s conservative voting record, such as his recent support for the FISA bill that grants amnesty to telecom companies that helped the Bush administration illegally spy on Americans.
Other tidbits:
- Although James said she’s an environmentalist, she supports opening more areas up to oil exploration – leading one to wonder if she knows what “environmentalist” means.
- James mentioned several times that she lives in the district, but Scott doesn’t. Having seen his Inman Park mansion, I can’t say I blame him.
- Scott said one answer to high fuel prices is removing sugar tariffs so we can import Brazilian ethanol. He made it all sound so simple…
- Starting with a rambling statement about the War on Drugs, James invited Scott to join her in taking a drug test. He declined.
Finally, James brought up an incident in which Scott supposedly referred to their Republican opponent, Deborah Honeycutt, as a bitch – or, as James put it, the “B-word.” Having served several years with Scott in the state Senate, James said she gained insight into his character. “He disrespects women,” she said.
“It’s a complete lie,” Scott replied.
Sorry, but that’s all the time we have, folks. If you didn’t feel you gained adequate knowledge about the candidates from this blog post, you can watch the entire half-hour debate here.
