CHICAGO (AP) — A candidate forum Wednesday on a black-oriented Chicago radio station appeared to do little to find a consensus black candidate for Chicago mayor next year.
The three leading black vote-getters from a recent
poll, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun and Illinois
state Sen. James Meeks, participated in the afternoon candidate forum on
WVON-AM. Under questioning by moderator Cliff Kelley, the three said they
agreed on the need for increased transparency at City Hall and the importance
of putting a professional educator at the helm of the Chicago Public Schools,
but little else.
WVON president Melody Spann Cooper said earlier
that the forum would be an important step in finding the best candidate for
African-Americans, who are the largest registered voting base in the city.
"There are groups meeting all over Chicago in
an attempt to pick a consensus candidate," Cooper said in a statement.
"We look at this as an opportunity to showcase these candidates so that
the voters can make an informed decision, versus a candidate being hand-picked
for them."
In a Chicago Tribune/WGN poll released Tuesday
night, Davis was the leading black candidate in the crowded field, with support
from 9 percent of registered likely voters, followed by Meeks with 7 percent
and Moseley-Braun with 6 percent.
Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who
is facing residency qualification challenges, was the only candidate in the
double digits, with the support of 32 percent of those polled. That was only
slightly higher than the 30 percent who were still undecided.
After Davis caught his flight, Meeks and
Moseley-Braun sidestepped Kelley's question about whether the 69-year-old
congressman might be too old to serve the two terms the three candidates said
might be necessary to deal with the city's budgetary, school and police
problems.
Earlier, Kelley asked Moseley-Braun if she might
consider dropping out in favor of another candidate, but she replied that she
was "in it to win it."
The three clashed on such issues as downtown casino
gambling, school vouchers and term limits for city and state elected officials.
Davis said he personally opposes gambling on
religious grounds, but would definitely consider a casino to increase city
revenue. Meeks, who is a pastor, said he opposes all gambling expansion, while
Moseley-Braun said the issue should be subject to a referendum.
Meeks is a strong proponent of school vouchers, but
Moseley-Braun said she opposes them and sees them as a step toward the
privatization of education. And part of Davis' platform or school reform is an
elected school board, which both Meeks and Moseley-Braun rejected out of hand.
On term limits for elected officials, Meeks said he
supports them for all posts, but Moseley-Braun responded by saying, "The
best term limit is the ballot box." She said imposed term limits weaken
elected officials in their dealings with appointed bureaucrats. And Davis said
term limits make sense for the executive branch, but should not apply to
legislative posts.
Copyright
2010 The Associated Press.
