This week’s coverage of Dayne Walling vs. Don Williamson, courtesy of The Flint Journal:
Economy key part in race. Mostly interviews pared down to single-sentences, but if you read through to the end, the last paragraph-worth is devastating.
Q&A: Walling on Flint’s economy and Q&A: Williamson on Flint’s economy. These could have the most important and galvanizing moments of the campaign, since they deal with what is arguably Flint’s most pressing issue. Unfortunately, because the questions are so generic and the responses so trunchated, nothing of substance is really said. Walling and Williamson have never sounded so similar as they do here.
Current, past City Council members back Walling. The full list is: Jim Ananich, Sheldon Neeley, Jackie Poplar, Carolyn Sims (from the current City Council); Ralph Arellano, Johnnie Coleman, Verdell Duncan, Josh Freeman, Mark Horrigan, Jack D. Minore, Lawrence B. Murphy, Matt Schlinker, Ed Taylor and Barry Williams (the former City Council). I have, and you probably do too, mixed feelings about many in this crowd. It is still a preponderant number, including more than a couple former Williamson supporters. In his campaign’s rebuttal, Joe Conroy said “it’s ironic that the mayor drove these people out of City Hall, because they were giving contracts away to their friends and overspending.” The quote is a nice textbook definition of the pot calling the kettle black.