And then there were four
I had the great pleasure of moderating a mayoral forum last night, focusing on the subject of the Arts. The event was held at the Museum of Fine Arts, and featured all four announced candidates for Houston Mayor. My thanks to Nancy Sims for inviting me, and to Ed Schipul for the photos.
It may seem surprising that you can spend more than an hour talking about Arts related issues, but that's exactly what we did. The discussions ranged from the Hotel Occupancy Tax to METRO. In general, the candidates all said they supported the arts (wouldn't you?) All said the current partial use of the HOT taxes for tourism related art spending is appropriate. However, no one was willing to make any promises about spending extra city dollars for arts related activities.
T he candidates were limited to one minute responses, and for the most part, they complied. Council Member Peter Brown tended to run a bit long, but better than his well known rambling tendencies at City Hall. Brown, of course, is heavily involved in the Opera, the Menil, and has quite an art collection. Controller Annise Parker spent time between questions taking lots of notes. She gave very thought out responses, and talked a lot about her involvement in civic arts. Roy Morales caused some rumblings when he said he didn't support light rail. As for Gene Locke, he pointed out that his kids are actors and artists.
Sometimes the simplest questions can be the most telling. A member of the audience asked what the last art related event each candidate went to. Parker said she had tickets to the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater last weekend, but couldn't make it. Brown pointed out he was endorsed recently by none other than super-artist George Clinton. Locke took the opportunity to tell the audience that his daughter is publishing a book, and he'll be going to her book signing. Morales, though, couldn't come up with a significant answer. He fumbled around a bit before stating that he went to an Ambassador's Club gala recently, and there was a dance performance during the gala.
Overall, I thought all the candidates performed fairly well. Granted, this wasn't a grilling, but careful listeners would have heard obvious differences among the candidates. Some audience members told me that they thought Locke should have smiled more. Others said they were surprised that Brown stayed fairly on topic. Still, no major gaffes among the four candidates.
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