John DeStefano Interview/Q&A
Tomorrow evening I will be interviewing New Haven mayor John DeStefano. However, the question and answer session will not take place directly after the interview, but will happen the following day (Friday) at a time yet to be determined (watch this space). Otherwise the format will be the same as it was for the last interview. The same rules apply: civility, please, and no staffer questions.
If you don't think you'll be around to ask questions of the mayor, please either post them here or send them to me via email.
Update: The Q&A will be Friday morning at 8:00am. Send questions if you don't get up that early.
Paul Vance Interview/Q&A
I will be interviewing J. Paul Vance, president of the Waterbury board of aldermen, on Friday. Mr. Vance is seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 5th District, currently represented by Nancy Johnson. There will be a Q&A session with him the following Tuesday. I will remind you of this again as it approaches.
Once again, feel free to post questions here first, although you may want to wait for the interview.
I'm looking forward to talking with both of these candidates, and I'm especially looking forward to the question and answer sessions. I thought there was great discussion last time, and the questions asked were very thoughtful and interesting.
If there are any other candidates out there (or if you know of one), Republican or Democrat, who are interested in doing something like this, I encourage them to contact me.
9 comments:
Mayor DeStefano: I'm from New London County and not that familiar with New Haven issues, so forgive me if these are FAQs. I'd like to ask:
Have you ever had to deal with eminent-domain issues such as we've had here? If so, what decisions did you have to make, and would you do them again?
I know there was a somewhat controversial shopping-mall project in New Haven, but I didn't follow the issue at the time. More generally, what have you learned as mayor about what works and what doesn't in attracting and retaining commerce? Thanks.
Mr. Vance: No questions because I don't know your district, but good luck vs. Nancy Johnson, whom I regard as somewhat unnecessary to our future.
Dear Mayor DeStefano--
Now that Joyce Chen has joined the Democratic Party, (she was formerly a Green), are you going to welcome and support her? Or is our town chair still going to target her seat, DESPITE her strong support from her ward? I know Joyce as a woman of commitment, and I would hope that New Haven and its one party system could handle a few dissenting voices!
And no, I don't agree with Joyce on everything. I just think it is a bit heavy-handed, given your overwhelming political support, for Joyce to be targeted as Public Enemy #1. Particularly when the majority of her constituents really like her.
If Joyce and her little voice are really the target of New Haven's political machine, what does that say about its leadership?
P.S. Please don't bring up Joyce's vote against civil unions when we all know that 40% of Democratic Alderpeople also voted against.
Maybe people should email their questions, since we know DeStefano staffers read this blog.
Huh??
Why should I e-mail a question b/c DeStefano staffers might be reading this blog? John is running as an honest and open Progressive Dem. I've never held him responsible for New Haven politics in its entirety. And I've donated to his campaign, repeatedly.
I just want to know if everyone, particularly his staffers, really believe in all this "open-ness". Or is it a convenient cloak to wrap themselves in.
Me, personally, I believe the best about our very hard-working Mayor. I think John DeStefano is a Democrat we should all be proud of. He gets "it".
But I also think that "open-ness" should begin at home. And if the New Haven recipe is that every critic needs to be squashed, --well, that says a lot. This is much, much bigger than JDS. And in the long run, I expect that John DeStefano will be part of the solution. He is an exceedingly capable politician. (and administrator.)
To Paul Vance and John DeStefano:
Would you refuse lobbyist and PAC money, if other campaigns did the same?
As the most vocal and easily recognizable staffer commenting on this blog, I can assure you that I am reading this. I've discussed issues of eminent-domain with the Mayor and I have some ideas about how he is likely to reply, but I want to see what he says in response.
A bunch of the questions asked to Malloy were asked ahead of time and I think if we want to be open, asking questions of Mayor DeStefano ahead of time on the blog seems to be fair and open, unless people are trying to ask gotcha questions and see how he responds completely off the cuff.
However, I would suggest that if you really want to see how he responds off the cuff, doing it online is not the right way to do it. You really should speak with him face to face, so you can get the full impact of his reactions.
I am interested in knowing what Anonymous' concerns are. I also wonder who anonymous is. Is he a staffer on a different campaign?
I see no reason to change the format used for the Malloy interview. If people don't want to publicly post questions ahead of time, they can email their questions to me or ask the questions themselves during the Q&A (I encourage people do show up for the Q&A regardless--it's good to ask follow-up questions).
To Paul Vance:
What would you say are the two issues that you would focus on the most if you were elected to Congress? Why do you think they are important?
To Mayor DeStefano:
1) Where do you stand on the drive for unionization at Yale, given that Yale is one of New Haven's biggest property owners?
2) What would you do on transportation, specifically alterntatives to cars and buses? Would you endorse further rail travel capability being created/resurrected on a statewide basis?
3) How would you, as Governor, bring jobs to cities such as New Haven, New London, and Bridgeport, whose economic bases have been whittled away over the years? What sort of industries would a Governor DeStefano bring to the state besides casinos and service industry?
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