Sep 2, 2009 9:59 pm US/Eastern
Menino Debates 3 Challengers For Mayor
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
The first showdown in the race for mayor of Boston took place Wednesday night in the WBZ-TV studio.
Each candidate held his own and made his case, and for the first time in a long time, Boston has a real mayoral race on its hands.
This was the first chance for most voters to see the four candidates side-by-side.
And it began with the four term incumbent arguing there's no need for change.
"We continue to move Boston forward, we stabilized the tax rate the last two years. How did we get there? Good financial management of our city, that's what we do every day, manage our city well," says Mayor Tom Menino.
But his challengers see a city struggling with school failures:
"24,000 kids, have dropped out over the last 16 years. you could fill, overflow TD Banknorth Garden, and if you ask where are those kids today, many of them probably unemployed, several of them probably incarcerated," says city councilor Michael Flaherty.
With economic and political malaise:
"We have stagnating development in Allston, in Brighton, in downtown, and we need to get this city moving again," says Kevin McCreary. "All 3 of these guys have been part of this patronage system for the past 4 years, 10 years and 16 years and they've done nothing about it."
A city, in short, in need of a leadership overhaul.
"A lot of people out there may be saying, if it ain't broke, why fix it? That may be the question for this election. well I'm here to tell you it's broke, and we need to fix it, and we don't just need a new mayor, but a new mayor who is going to change the system," says city councilor Sam Yoon.
Menino was well armed with a litany of programs he's proud of, too many for his challengers to fully rebut.
But Flahery, McCrea and Yoon all had moments when they effectively raised doubts about Menino's performance
I thought they laid the groundwork for one of the them to press Menino in the final debate.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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