“Yes Man” v. “Lady No”

That's what the El Paso Press Club should have called the last debate between City Representative Melina Castro and Carl Robinson. The title sounds like a lot like a pro-wrestling match, which is why the name would've been perfect, since that's pretty much how the debate went.

Lots of flash, cheering fans, but no real punches being landed.

The Northeast is the absolute undisputed most politically active part of town and residents demonstrated their activism by showing up to the forum in big numbers. More than 120 people were in attendance for the final debate of this campaign season. Nobody does a candidate forum like the Northeast. You are guaranteed to have refreshments, lots of debate, cranky old people, and when it comes to questions from the audience, you'll get a few people who confuse an essay with a question.

The best part about forums in the Northeast is that there is always the feeling that an episode of Jerry Springer is going to break out at any moment, complete with flying chairs and insults between audience members.

The debate started with introduction of media types who were in attendance. Though they weren't all introduced, there were some other noteworthy people in attendance including Mayor John Cook, District 6 city Rep. Eddie Holguin, former County Commissioner / city Rep. / Talk Radio Personality Barbara Perez, former candidates for District 4 city Rep. Walt Phillips (this election) and Jerome Tilghman (in 2005), and former congressional candidate, Jorge Artalejo.

Castro, bolstered by strong crowd support including at least 12 people wearing pink Castro tees, won the debate, if you had to pick a winner.

Each of the candidates started with an opening statement. Castro was on-message and rattled off a list of achievements during her four years in office. Robinson, who came out much more forcefully than usual, spent most of the time defending why he didn't attend the last debate. Robinson said that he'd missed the death of several family members in his past that he regretted, including that of his sister, mother, and brother and that's why he missed the last debate.

I later followed up by asking Robinson why he made two other media appearances later in the same day if that was the case. Robinson's answer was that the interview with KVIA, which was done shortly after the forum, was done on-the-fly and was fairly short. He also said that he'd been contacted by Paul Strelzin to be a guest on his show the same day, after the forum.

Northeast resident Tracy Benson, who originally supported Brian Burds, a candidate who did not make the run-off, summed up the run-off campaign by saying, “We have to choose between which candidate to vote against.” Benson voted for Castro in 2005 in order to vote against Jerome Tilghman and says she's now voting for Carl Robinson in order to cast a ballot against Melina Castro.

When asked why, Benson replied, “She stands up for her principles so much that she's ostracized herself and is not a team player (on council)...she stands on a rock out in the middle of nowhere”.

After the media types asked questions, the floor was opened up to the audience. Actually it was more like the flood gates were open. The line to pose a question to the candidates was quickly longer than the lines at the passport office. Nearly all the people who asked a question were plants.

Most of the questions were repeats of earlier questions asked or were the audience's attempt to play “Gotcha!” with the candidates. The fun part about watching people in the audience ask questions is knowing their back story, which usually explains why they ask the questions they ask.

Here's an example. Jerome Tilghman asked a question about the CAD's recent property valuations. Tilghman wanted to know if the candidates challenged their appraisals. At first glance, it seems like a fairly harmless question, but Castro sits on the CAD board, which is what I initially thought was Tilghman's angle when asking the question.

Castro responded by saying she didn't challenge the appraisal. That's when I remembered that Tilghman's chief attack on Castro during their run-off election was that Castro didn't live in the district. That question may have been Tighlman's subtle reminder of that issue.

There was a bit of a racial subtext to one line of questioning. A man ironically dressed in a shirt with an American flag on it asked the candidates, in Spanish and after a brief essay, if they were bilingual. This question was met by some groans from some of the older debate goers about being in the United States. Castro answered that she was bilingual and Robinson stated that he was bilingual because he spoke English, Vietnamese, and Thai. That would make him trilingual, but who's counting?

One young lady asked an interesting question of the candidates. She asked if there was anything that the candidates admired about their opponent that they would like to have. Both candidates took the opportunity to show off their sense of humor.

“She has the office I want.” answered Robinson.

Castro fired back, “I wish I had the free media he gets.”

The media was a popular target for debate goers who took the chance to blame everything on the media, but more on that later.

She Loves Me Not

I guess Castro's passion for me has cooled. She's back to looking at me like she wants to cook me in my own fat.

Her crowd of cheerleaders clapped for me when I asked Robinson about not going to the last debate. They booed me when I asked her to clarify her statement on ABC 7 Xtra Sunday night, when she said the $30k to pay the city for her unsuccessful lawsuit (which is on appeal) came from “personal funds.”

She said, "...if it came out of my personal funds then it's personal, obviously. I do have an appeal pending, I don't owe that money until the judges say ... I would hate to have to share all my personal information with you like where do I purchase my mattresses from, how do I pay for my car, how do I pay for my toothpaste."

I'm pretty sure a couple of them told me to shut up too. Funny how both campaigns think my columns favor their adversary.

Castro took the opportunity to have a little fun with me. She said I have a great blog, but that readers should contact her to see if it's accurate first. She also said, “It's just a blog. Anybody can write a blog.”

Her husband was filming right next to me and put the camera on me when Castro was ripping me, for which she was cheered. I decided I'd have a little fun too and looked in to the camera and said, “Ah, I love you too Melina.”

For the record, she said it was a great blog. Maybe she still loves me after all.

Change the Record Already

Neither of the candidates delivered a knock-out blow despite having many opportunities to do so. Carl Robinson failed to show any drastic policy differences with Castro. He kept falling back on his constant campaign drumbeat of “I'm a veteran” and “I pay my taxes.”

Both are admirable, but neither are qualifications.

Castro kept falling back on her campaign drum beat of “I'm an independent voice” and The-Media-Picks-on-Me.

Castro has improved remarkably since she was first elected. She clearly has the deepest knowledge of the issues of the two candidates. But Castro continues to demonstrate an adversarial posture towards the media. Sure, sometimes she really should have that posture, but she seems incapable of turning it off.

Take it from me, in every dysfunctional relationship, both sides are to blame. Castro should be master of her own ship and control her dealings with the media a little better. Instead of the defensive posture, she should learn to speak in sound bites. She's articulate and knows the issues and being attractive sure doesn't hurt. The media is a factor, like it or not, and she should capitalize on that more.

Both candidates have boiled down their campaign messages. Carl's simply is inadequate and does nothing to give voters a reason to get behind him. Castro's is still effective because it makes Carl have to prove he won't be a "Yes Man" or “rubber stamp”.

I asked Robinson about what he thought of Castro's effort to portray herself as an independent voice and paint him as the "Yes Man." Robinson told to me that he'd been approached by two members of council who were considered to be The Progressives about helping out his campaign. Robinson told me that he didn't take them up on the offer because he is his own man and doesn't want to “owe” anyone.

Robinson also revealed that the money isn't coming in to the campaign the way he had anticipated. Castro clearly doesn't have that problem.

Quote of the Day

Holguin delivered the line of the day after the debate was over. I was remarking to a colleague that according to the audience, the media was responsible for everything.

“Except accurate news,” Holguin added.

The crowd around us responded with an “Ohhhhh” like the one you hear when a guy gets hit in the wrong place.

The Decision

Essentially the choice in the Northeast comes down to the "Yes Man" versus "Lady No." Robinson has to do something to counter the very effective branding campaign of Castro, but appears to shy from engaging Castro on her record or challenging her assertion of being an independent voice, despite the fact that it would be so easy to accomplish.

Castro has to overcome some image problems of her own. Many voters have the trademark Northeast chip on their shoulder about not getting their fair share from the city. Castro is known for voting no on a lot of things and will have a hard time making voters simultaneously believe that she will fight to get things for the Northeast and be a fiscal conservative.

Election day is right around the corner (next Saturday). In the words of Michael Buffer:

“Let's ready to rumbleeeeee!!!!”

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Abeytia writes theLionstar blog and is a political animal who spends way too much time traveling the wilds of El Paso politics. Reach him at lionstar@thelionstarblog.com.