The City Hall Bureau chief for the New York Times and grace, reporter for new york one. This will be an uninterrupted conversation about issues where you will get a chance to learn more about the seven Democratic Candidates seeking to become the next mayor. Nyc2013 on twitter. This is part of the official new york Debate Program administered by the City Campaign finance board. They managed the Public Matching Funds Program designed to small dollare contributions. Gather partners to bring these debates. Of the city of new york, the hispanic federation, citizens for new york city, transportation , and timees, wnyc warner cable. Lets introduce the seven candidates. Deldable all seo bill sio, Christine Quinn [cheers and applause] john liu. Sal. And anthony weiner. The candidates we each have one minute to respond to questions asked by the panel and they will be given the ability to respond if asked directly by an opponent. We will have cross examination where they will be able to ask one opponent a question. They whirl they will have a lightning round with brief questions and answers. They will also make closing statements of one minute each. With that in mind, lets begin. We start with one man well been manuel benitez. Is a hospital nobody wants to own. They could take down the system. F hostels how are you planning on keeping it open . How will you pay for it . Do you think it is a fiscally responsible position to have . They need Long Island College hospital. That is the closest emergency room by far for 75,000 people. We fought successfully to keep it open. In the last year, we won in court yet again and the hospital is open for business. Its important for brooklyn and the city. We have to end of the of hospital closures. And they want to have the city and state played the most prominent role in how to protect local healthcare facilities. It must be provided locally. You will not give the primary and Preventative Care you need. We need the city and state to take responsibility and my plan is the one that would actually make that happen. Only one to be the appear who has presented that kind of plan. As a quick followup, would you find money in the budget to keep it open . I think one of the most important things we do is protect the Public Health. Whether it takes city funds, state funds, or the medicaid waiver that the state as called for to bring in federal dollars explicitly for hospital restructuring, it is time for the local governments to take responsibility. What we have been doing now is hospitals just close. Look at what happened with st. Vincent sand one dozen hospitals in in the bloomberg years. Its unacceptable so its time for the city and state to step up. Ms. Quinn, do you think there is money in the budget to pay for these hospitals that are not the responsibility of the city . Robust round of applause was not for me but for my father who turned 87 today. I want to start off by saying happy birthday. [applause] health care, we in oneerface, st. Johns of the most isolated parts of threatening to be closed. We want to make sure the mayor is not sitting on the side. We need to get the medicaid waiver so we get the money we are owed in the city. It will bring us resources to help us stabilize hospitals but also create more primary and Preventative Care. I will implement when i am mayor Public Health infrastructure atmission which will look where we need to stabilize hospitals, where many to reopen hospitals, where we need primary care, preventative or urgent care. We will start figuring out how to use the federal money. Then we will advocate for state money from them. When it isare times appropriate for city money to be brought in to help stabilize hospitals. We need more transparency about private hospital budgets. I want to get legislation passed toalbany that requires them report about their finances so it does not sneak up. Do you think the city should get involved and basically pay to keep it open . This is the wealthiest city in the entire nation. Im tired of hearing we dont have money for this or that. Dozen hospitals that have shut down under this administration are part of the Public Infrastructure and they should be treated as such. Treated as not be private entities. Look at what has happened, what we could have gone. Vincent, 160f st. Year history and it shut down. When have and immediately after . The area was rezoned for luxury condos. Why didnt it take place before so maybe they should have sold the air rights to shore up the financials and keep the hospital needed thats what have to be done on st. Vincent is. You were nowhere on the ground at st. Vincents. Bill, youve been great on the hospital closures, but where were you for the first three years of your public [applause] it goes without saying. Mr. Thompson . Going through a healthcare crisis. Suis interface, downstate ny, brookdale. We have to get involved first. Its important that a federal waiver come through. We all have to make sure that it happens. Thats leadership. That keeps the hospitals open until we can create them as i proposed, a commission for brooklyn to allow for primary care. That keeps hospitals open. We cannot turn our backs on central brooklyn, rutland healthcare needs, and the mayor cannot sit on the sidelines. I would be out there working with the governor and others to keep those hospitals open. They are the lifeblood of central brooklyn and abrupt one. We see what happens across the city, not just st. Vincents but in queens when hospitals closed and created a healthcare crisis. Before he give you time for a bottle, mr. Wiener, do you think we should save to keep these you arepen . Asking the wrong question. We are giving 20 to insurance companies. Why . Wide dont we have a single payer system where we manage around health care budgets, invest in hospitals and jobs, cover the undocumented . Thats the ambitious plan i lined out. When they proposed all of these closings, i started traveling around with these proposals and when it was time to fight for said, why are we doubling down on the employer model . Lets have medicare for all americans. In new york city, we have an opportunity to be a healthcare laboratory. Andave hospitals, doctors we are paying a ton of money. The costs for health care is going to go up 40 of the next four years and eating up our ability to do anything else including giving raises to our workers. We are going to be a single payer healthcare model here and if we do it in new york, it will spread across the country and we will get rid of the employer based model that does not take care of citizens. Thank you. [applause] case of a longhe island hospital, do you think we should find the money from the budget to keep it open yo . I delved right into this closing that was reaching epidemic proportions. Peninsula, rockaway, other hospitals, st. Vincents. I said to myself, i had been in the private sector the last 15 years, why are we closing hospitals . Some kind of ave strategy before we do this . Im shocked to say we dont have the common sense as a government in these people have been here for a long time to even put together some plans and now people are getting arrested, jumping around in rallies. The should have been handled years ago when we needed a common sense approach. Look. This is common sense. You plan as a city. I want to establish a common sense commission. As soon as i take office, i will put 30 citizens together from fornd the city to look common sense solutions, every directive, airy policy, and streamline bureaucracy to make wings happen instead of getting caught up in red tape. Im always last and im used to it. When we talk about Public Health, we have to understand that the government has to be very vigilant. 25 years ago, i started to work as a community leader. They depend on Long Island College hospital so its a good inc. To fight, but when he said he does not know what they should i enhance it, you cannot obligate the private sector to actually do a job. The government, if we want them to provide the service, we have to make sure that we finance that service if i go there and get arrested, im going to come out of jail right after the election. It is the government responsibility to invest money when the Public Health is at risk. Let me give you 32nd diseas0s each. Leadersnity letters and i got together and we were able to save it until it was in danger. We went to court and im very proud to say that the neighborhoods that i represent now as public advocate, we have cap Long Island College hospital open and we are ready to get a longterm plan. I was involved in the same vincent issue and to top me all i needed to know about the role of the mayor because i appeal to mayor bloomberg twice and he said he would not get involved to save a hospital. Standr and the city must up to save healthcare for everyone in every neighborhood. Its part of the job description. [applause] last 30 seconds. We have to keep the fight going to keep her hospitals open particularly in neighborhoods like the rockaways, and west side manhattan that dont have them anymore and dont have other options. The thing about st. Vincents, when it went out of business, we were right in the middle of rezoning in the middle of the first that might have saved it. A few things happened. Lets be honest. The heirs at st. Vincents lied to all of us. Two weeks before the final rezoning they said everything was good with their budget and clearly at wasnt. Maybe if we move more quickly and they had not lied, things would have been different but im proud of our efforts that cap say in sense of open for months, but at the end of the day, st. Vincents canceled ats contract for staff and killed it. If the first rezoning went through without opposition, that may had been the glimmer of hope now at protests, the public advocate stands with people who went and testified against the rezoning, people like Susan Sarandon who said they would never send their children there. You have to the what you are for all the time. Time to respond let me say a word to the audience. To the extent you have those outbursts, it takes time away from the candidates and we want to make sure that everybody gets heard. Very quicke a response and then we will move on. Her response is a smokescreen. She did not save a hospital in her own district. As the chief ally of mayor bloomberg, she did not find a way to save a hospital. She should not blame the protesters, the act of this. It was her job to step up and get the mayor to come along my district, we saved Long Island Hospital college again this year. Lets move on to ryan lehrer as you all know, inequality is a central issue for many democratic primary voters this year and i believe that three of and mr. Liu, mr. Weiner, mr. De blasio have proposals to raise taxes on some of the wealthiest new yorkers. Yet gold you raise taxes on home precisely . How would you use the money to reduce inequality . Thank you so much. This is something i have been focusing on. Income inequality is ruining your chances for real economic sharedy i could mean prosperity for all new yorkers. Specifically, i put together a tax reform plan but will ask 500,000 pere over year, the 1 , such as Bill Thompson, to pay a little bit more. Those below the threshold will pay a little bit less. Right now, it is shocking, appalling, that in the city of new york, we have a flat tax. Youatter how much you make, pay the same rate. It should be progressive like everywhere else in the country. Those who make less, pay less. Who make more pay more. And thisair system fight is continuing to hurt our chances for a full economic recovery. What would you do with the money . It would cost a little bit of money to give the tax reduction to those below the threshold and raise the taxes for those above. Overall, my office is estimated it will bring in 250 million up to one billion dollars in additional revenue and that is part of the peoples budget where we greatly expand the educational system to start kids early on and take them all the way through college so we the approach. Mr. Wiener, is your plan different, better . Im sure its better. For the longest time, we have her descriptions of the city that is not right. We are one city with a common aspirational goal and this notion that we are all middle sees people, sometimes you people who are actually quite wealthy but when they look in their mirror, they say this is the capital of middleclass and the talk about their experience. Anyone who makes less than 150,000 per year gets a 10 tax cut in if you make more than 1 million or more you pay 1 more. The fundamental numbers of people youre struggling to make it in this city, we are losing middleclass jobs and creating jobs at the very low end of the spectrum, restaurant worker jobs, poor people jobs. We have to make this the middle class capital again which is why i have education policies, tax policies. Click send your plan for the extra revenue . It generates revenue. Thats the remarkable thing and all we ask them to do is pay 1 more. Mr. De blasio. Tax on theis for a wealthiest so we can have prek for the full day for every child because the greatest investment we can make infighting and equality for the long run is get more kids a good education. I say that as a Public School parent. I will be the First American history of the city to serve while having a child in the Public Schools and i have to tell you i know that the investment in Early Childhood education, which we have not been making, will be the difference maker. Parents knowing they can get full day prekindergarten. There are 50,000 kids right now who should have gotten the full day this. Did not test this plan wasnt in place. They should be an afterSchool Programs but but they are not getting it right now. For those who make 500,000 dollars or more, from 3. 9 up to 4. 3 for the next five years but what it would mean in terms of addressing inequality would be vast. We would reach kids when they are most able to learn and we are most able to fight back against the disadvantages they may have experienced when they are 3m four years old, that is the greatest time to educate our children and put them on the right path so they can and will graduate and be a strong member of our economy. Ms. R. Thompson and then quinn. Given the inequality and the responses of your colleagues, why will you not propose raising taxes on some of the wealthiest new yorkers you . I supported tax increases when the president did, when the governor pushed for it, i supported it. Tax increases are a last resort, not a first option. And to be honest, we have seen tax increases before that have come through the city council at some of my colleagues up here have voted for and they were not increases on the wealthy. They were increases on middle class new yorkers and those are the tax increases we have seen. When it comes to closing the inequality gap, we have to focus on education. Those are the important things, making sure our children are reading on the grade level and that in the end we provide the opportunity for them to go to college or be able to get a job. That is how we close the inequality gap the best way we can, by not closing schools, by working hard to make the Education System work. If i could followup . Would universal prek not be central to that . Way toou find another pay for that that you could specify . We send money back to the state of new york for prek. The governor has indicated that he wants to Work Together on universal prek. Mayor of thethe city of new york should be doing right now making sure the money is returned and we turn it into fullday prek and we fight to get the space needed. Thats the biggest problem. Ms. Quinn. Theres no way you can rule out the potential that you will not raise taxes. If we have to, i will do it progressively. I supported the call when they put the millionaire tax in place and, if we have to do it, we cannot find the resources within our budget to get what we need, we will fight for more progressive taxes. One thing i will do regardless, right now in new york city, people at the lowest income who pay the earned income tax credit , we are one of the only places in the country where they still pay a personal income tax and its insane to take money like that. Im i will push for legislation im going to push for legislation in albany to change that but the key to really addressing income inequality is, in addition to education, create the opportunity for a pathway to more middleclass jobs and i will give you one example. Companies in have the south bronx and queens that retrofit trucks to make them nonpollutant. Are turning away work. Why . They dont have enough trained green mechanics. I will open a Technical High School to to train people for those jobs. 40ey will start at 30 dollars an hour in be on a path to the middleclass. I will also first goal in the budget and get rid of all of the outside contract we dont need and figure out how much money we have two dedicate to the services we want to expand and if we need taxes after that, i will absolutely do it progressively. [applause] thank you all. The next will be led by grace. Unemployment rate right now is 8. 4 , a full point higher than the National Average and new jobs are being added but not enough to keep up with the newcomers coming to the city looking for work mf fact is many of the new jobs that are being are in lower paying areas like tourism, education, retail. What would you do to create know, good paying jobs in new york and would the best thing just to be to get government and regulation out of the way so the businesses can grow on their round . We will start with mr. Thompson. The first thing, as we look to create jobs, and we have to grow jobs, we have been dependent on wall street for way too long. We need to diversify our economy. First, look up the hightech sector. There are a lot of jobs being created their round i want to support growth in that area. However, young people dont have the training to get those jobs. We need to bring career rentech bill education we need to bring Technical Education back. There are so many jobtraining entities out there but there is no coordination, nothing that ties them together and they are focused on placement, not attention, and not focusing on the jobs of tomorrow. I want to create a chief jobs officer in city hall to get that done and tie those jobs together , to be able to prepare people for the training they need to get better paying jobs. Minority and women owned businesses, the state of new york is trying to get to 20 . New york citys numbers are 3 . Mal, we need to create a tie in between minority and women owned businesses and city contracts. If the stay can get to 20 , the city can do better. Last and not least, we have to move on. Mr. Wiener. [applause] first, the lowwage workers that are virtually in poverty wages, we should help them organize. Thehey unionize, they raise quality of living and we will require those companies to provide insurance for the workers. Small businesses are undoubtedly getting tied in knots by higher to do my bestoing to try to put the department of Small Business back on the side of those businesses and one reason i talk so much about healthcare and the the need for a singlepayer system is that it is a giant employerbased we are leading with her on the vine. Think about health care, the lowest wage workers all the way up and our entire workforce and get 13 hot ills we have allowed to close. We will not only stop them from closing but reopened the ones we have because we will control more of the money with him. Finally, we need like micro loans and financing. We have the ability to float debt that individual citizens dont have access to. This is where 65 of new jobs are created and this is where we need to revitalize. Many people would argue that the mayor is limited in their ability to actually create jobs. Is that the case . S to createe case jobs . Its a real thing the mayor can do to help sectors that are doing well to do even better and bring new ones. We talk a lot about the high tech sector and were very lucky the hightech sector sector is interested in new york city right now. Cornell coming here is terrific but i will not lose a minute sleep over the first cornell graduating class, but i do lose sleep over their future, so lets take the potential of hightech being interested in new york and when i am mayor, lets turn it into a pipeline for those jobs. Its possible we already started. We graduated the first class of the tech apprenticeship program, thertnership the between council and every one of those students got a fulltime, great paying job in the place they interned. Lets also use the power of city contracts to raise peoples wages and put more money in their pockets. Im so proud to have passed the prevailing wage and a living wage law. On day one, i will drop the lawsuits against those bills and put them into effect. [applause] to do more to support the Small Businesses out there. This program can help with that but we also need to move to make every first time find that is not about health or safety, make warning, not a financial violation, just like we will do with restaurants next month by law. Mr. De blasio. I want to bring you man, you have been supportive. To raisebout working wages for workers in the city ok. It disrupt or is going to be removed. Ok, great. Peaking about trying to raise wages and the city, its something you have certainly been supportive of them many have argued quite strenuously against it saying you may raise wages for some workers but at the expense of new jobs, that businesses cannot afford to hire new people at the have to pay their workers more. How do you strike the right balance . Wages would raising wages, at the expense . The expense . This has been deepening over the last few years and its on except the bull. Said 46 of new yorkers at or near the poverty level. Gottenhe situation has worse and worse, mayor bloomberg has fiddled while rome burned and has not address the inequality crisis. Its time for a very different approach and i have to say to mr. Thompson and ms. Quinn that it must include taxing the wealthiest new yorkers. Its necessary to start addressing this crisis particularly in education. We cannot do full day prek without additional investment and new investment. It is the city governments responsibility and we have many tools to do it. I have called or an end to subsidies for big companies. I thing this money would have been better spent on Financial Aid so that they could get the kind of degrees that would get them jobs in the tech sector. It would be better spent on loans for Small Business to create jobs at the grassroots level. Those are the types of progressive policies that address the inequality and we need them now. You talk about the subsidies and i think we have seen that the vast majority of these the subsidiesget dont create the jobs they originally promised. What we are doing is shelling out aliens to private corporations while neglecting cuny students and job training sites. We need to keep the money in the hands and develop our own Human Capital survey can truly create the jobs and get people the opportunities they need. Would there be any room for subsidies . Not subsidize corporations because you know what . The vast majority of jobs are being created by the private sector and its only a small of politically connected companies that get the subsidies. Lets level the Playing Field especially for the Small Businesses. Tax break andm a take it away from the multibillion dollar companies. Lets talk about a living wage in this city, something i ,upported as a councilmember controller. They refuse to support a living wage until the final days when it was apparent it was going to pass with or without them and Bill Thompson never even weighed in on the issue. I think he still opposed. People can stand up here and talk about anything they want, but you have to look up the record am mine is one of Economic Development and economic equality. Its not just about the quality but equity. Mr. Thompson, are you in favor of the living wage bill . I would like to come the publichat advocate indicated. When he talked about universal prek, i support it. Right now, money is sent back to the state of new york each and every year. Thats wrong. We need to redirect that money into universal prek. Tax inoposal is almost a search of an idea. Lets be honest about it. We want universal prek, but the only taxes i seem to remember you increasing when you were in the city council, 18 point five percent in property taxes and others that seemed to hit working new yorkers and middle class new yorkers so lets be honest with the public. This are going to have conversation, no more flip flopping when it is convenient for you. [applause] a response . Spoken thompson has not to Public School parents lately. Do they need fullday prek for their children, will it make a huge difference for their children . The answer is a resounding yes, so lets be clear. I have not heard mr. Thompson say he has a plan to right now finance fullday prek for every child in the city. I have submitted such a plan. It is not in search of a problem but ready to address a very real problem that parents cannot i and fullday prek and after School Programs to help keep them safe. They know we need this investment and asking the wealthy to do a little more is fair and just in terms of what we need to do for the future of our city. Mr. Thompson has not offered a plan to provide this help for children. Up, thank to wrap it you. Now we will turn to david chen. Do i get to talk at all . I havent spoken a while. Whats going on here yo . [applause] do i have to just jump in here . Is a lot of hot air loading around them by want to talk to, you know . Good evening, again. A reader emailed me this morning and said in her opinion, with the exception of the mayorrd, she thought bloomberg and ray kelly did a good job responding to crises that she has no idea how each of you would respond to a crisis. Lets play along for a second. It is summer 2014. Youre out of town on your first vacation as mayor, not in bermuda, presumably. In hear that power goes out new york city and you are not sure why. You think its a blackout that you dont know if its a natural disaster. You cannot get in touch with people. Thatou hear secondhand is power could be out for a few days. What do you do . Albanese, why dont we start with you . [laughter] first of all, let me come back to the question of inequality because im the only candidate we can get back to it later. There will be room for that. The waiving wage law was people 12 an hour. I think a lot of people are quite curious as to how you might handle a crisis if you can talk about the living wage later. I would rarely take a vacation as mayor. [laughter] i would stay on the scene to things worked perfectly. I think the city of new york had a crisis almost on a daily basis. You have to be in touch. I will have a deputy mayor for operations who will be well versed in dealing with a crisis, and i certainly would not let what happened during the snowstorm take place where everyone was on vacation back in december. I will be working very hard and vacations are going to be very rare. I will be in touch on a daily basis. Very, highly communicative society so i will be handson constantly. I will be in the neighborhoods and i will respond to emergencies myself because i would not be too far away from the city, if at all. Mr. Thompson, you have talked about being in france, if im not mistaken, so i would like to get your take on what you would do. You have been out of office for four years now. I dont think the mayor is going to leave me the plane. Will be within driving distance of the city. Part of this is also setting protocol ahead of time and making sure that we are ready, that the opposite of Emergency Management, the deputy mayor, the number one first deputy mayor is ready to go. Those are the things, not waiting until a situation occurs but being ready for the situation. We have seen in the last 15 years that almost everything happens to new york city and we have to be ready for any emergency that is planning, being heavier at being ready ahead of time, understanding the protocol, having the head of the fire, police, first deputy, others already. Thats what its about, not waiting but being ready ahead of time. Mr. Salgado. Vacationnt taken a out of the country in a while. I have six children. Its very costly when you want to leave the country. Andlast was in florida there was a storm and also an earthquake while i was on vacation. We decided to drive back and and that iswas good exactly where my church is out some a near coney island. We started to pray and the storm disappeared. I believe in that. That is why i say we have to do that for sure. Now, i have not spoken a while so you have to bear with me. It is precisely this kind of thatlist economic ideas kills jobs. Any working east during it did not work in eastern europe, cuba, and i dont think its going to work in new york city. They are talking about taxing weight, weight, mr. Wait, mr. Salgado why . Im going to switch to mr. Wiener. If you can finish your answer quickly, then i will go to mr. Wiener. The kind ofxactly socialist economic ideas that kill jobs. Soon we will be at zero percent like in cuba. These people invest in the money need to continue doing so. If we want equality, we have to concentrate and create more jobs. Have over 20 different storefronts closed because nobody wants to go into business anymore in new york city because everything is about taxing, ticketing, and people need to work. We need to in courage the Small Businesses to continue what they are doing and we have to let the people who invest money in the city to continue doing so so we can create more jobs and then the inequality economically in the city. Thank you. Mr. Wiener, you have a different perspective because you worked in the federal government so im curious what kind of experience you would bring to handling a crisis or whether you would do anything different from your associates have said so far. A lot of people in the city would dispute the idea that it is the only time when the mayor got it wrong when people in rockaway were digging out of their own homes and they were hearing stories about how the marathon would continue, it had a sense of discord that really struck people. One thing i would do would be to create an environment in the city thats different. Its not the city talking down an all fiber rose. For example, im going to fight for this as mayor, but we need to take some of the power lines down around some of these and put them underground so they dont get not down during every storm the people in Southeast Queens have floods when it rained, they have flooding through the community and the notion that the city is even ready for a stiff wind right now alone a bigd, let emergency. We need a mayor who understands all five boroughs and we dont have that right now. With me, we are going to do something else. Is going to be there on the Community Boards with the deputies, commissioners, the people in charge to hear about the challenges before they arrive. We will not wait for an emergency and then tell people to go one. Quinn, who do you call, what do you do . What would be your Decision Making tree when it it comes to Something Like this . City, iwas out of the would come back immediately regardless of disaster. If it is something we could see coming, obviously you would never leave in the first place. Second, we know just about every kind of disaster we could face in the city. As mayor, one thing i will make sure as we have clear plans in place from a citywide event how to deal with them but also plans broken down not just by bro or neighborhood but sec ears within neighborhoods of people who will be on the ground if Something Like this happens. We need to make sure every agency has its own plan and that we run tabletop on those plans over and over so people are ready. Reader wrote about a blackout but the truth is there are lots of other things that could happen and we need in advance be investing into the infrastructure that will prevent that. We need to get power lines underground. We need to fix up the city sewer system which is hundreds of hundreds of years out of date. We need to make sure we are moving to more alternative forms of energy so we are not such a drain on the grid every summer in the city and its critical to have both a first deputy mayor, a deputy mayor of operations, and a head of the office of Emergency Management to are the best that can possibly be as it relates to being on the job, clear, focused and crisis situation but, least of all, after you get out emma you have for youreal debris staff they are new yorkers. I would go and have town meetings and communities to find out what irks and what did not. [applause] let me swing this over to mr. Liu for second. I would like like to get your of the mayorsrt emergency plans you would keep and what you would scrap, i guess. Any kind of situation, whether it be ongoing or emergency, we need a Strong Police commissioner, fire commissioner, commissioner for Emergency Services and management. We need to have these individuals in place to we also need to be able to communicate. That is the premise of your question. What happens if communications go down . This administration has spent the better part of a decade trying to come up with in emergency 911 system. They spent 2 billion on the system and recently they had to revert back to paper and pencil to take down emergency calls. Myt would not happen under administration. And fact, the 911 system is something i raised alarms early about at tenure as controller to say it was a project i was so mismanaged and overblown that 1 billion overrun and we have a system that is not usable. Infrastructure is right emma but you start with Communication Systems so you can communicate with your Police Commissioner, fire commissioner, and you make sure that they can communicate with their own staff and communicate with each other. Number oneons is the priority in any kind of emergency situation and that is something i would never let fall by the wayside. Thank you. We saw that with sandy. We had a reactive government. For 10 years, they did nothing. People are ranting and raving, disgusted, shocked, dismayed its the government. You have the controller, the speaker, the public advocate you have a member of congress and their cost only outraged about the fact we didnt do anything . [cross talk] i had saved 4 billion as controller. Gentlemen, please. We are going to move on. It is now time for the cross examination where each candidate gets a chance to ask a question to one and one only of his or her opponents. Will go first. My question is for speaker quinn. There is a historically important vote in the city of the and after years overuse of stop and frisk and communities being alienated alienated from the police because of discriminatory treatment, because of unconstitutional policing practices, we have a chance tomorrow to take a major step in the right direction. The city council will have the chance to override mayor bloomberg ts veto. Previously, you voted against the ban on racial profiling by the nypd. You stood with mayor bloomberg against the ban on racial profiling. Will you tomorrow vote against the ban on racial profiling . City council, the something incredibly significant is going to happen. Were going to override the veto of legislation relating to stop and frisk and these overrides are going to put in and, a huge step towards putting an end to unconstitutional stops. Coupled with the courts actions and the work of activists all across the city. Unlike the public advocate whos really good at telling other people what to do but not always good at getting things done himself, tomorrow, i will put legislation in effect that will have permanent monitoring of our police department. The young man i met and talked to today on the steps of city hall, who told me on his way home from college he was stopped , we will be monitoring that so it will not happen. Lets also be clear about the factas a relates to the that the public advocate is misrepresenting tonight emma racial profiling is illegal in the city of new york, as it should the, and i support that. Is not to banrow racial profiling but to give individuals the opportunity to go to state court as well as federal court. We saw the ruling in federal court last week. We know people can get redress of their. Im afraid that if we have two courts involved that we would get contradict record decisions which will be tough for us to implement, but tomorrow, let me be clear. With my colleagues, im the one who will put legislation in practice, something you have not done, bill. I will pass a law to help us and unconstitutional stops period. [applause] there is a fundamental quinnsction in speaker position because she wants to keep ray kelly, the architect of stop and frisk, as her Police Commissioner and shes opposed to the legal ban on racial profiling. I just asked if she was going to vote yet again against the ban. I did not hear it particularly straightforward answer but i assume the answer is yes, tomorrow she will vote against the ban. I think the people of new york city as they make a decision about the future need to know if you are actually going to vote against a local law to help make sure the nypd stops profiling people of color and appropriately. Bill, again youre misrepresenting what this law is about. I want the watchers and viewers to know, because you are representing it, rachel racial profiling is already illegal, as it should be. This allows people to go to state toward an additional two federal court in addition to federal court. I will not vote to give state courts the ability to weigh in on our police apartment. Its appropriate in the federal court thomas lets not misrepresent. Today, by aling is, law passed by a former city Council Illegal and Public Advocates should stop misrepresenting that. [applause] salgado will ask the next question. By the way we are going to go in order, john liu. You and all of the other candidates were told in advance what this will be. Please no more inch interruptions. My question is for bill de blasio. I know Christine Quinn understood in the beginning and she went out but you were talking about this in the daily news and you said it was something that needs to be done in this city. Not need toy did have an identification card. You are the public advocate. Why were you not an advocate before for this idea . Do a lot in new york city right now to address the reality of immigrants around us who are not documented. They need support, too. We finally have an opening for some real change. The statedream act up level. We need to stay to also act on drivers licenses. People should have an opportunity to get a drivers license if they qualify regardless of documentation and we should have a city id card for those who choose to use one, even for those who are doneumented, as has been successfully like in cities like San Francisco and new haven. To actuallyelp embrace and support people who are living here but are not given the rights they deserve. Unfortunately, we cannot depend on washington ec to be fair to immigrants. New york city, the ultimate city of immigrants can lead the way and be an example and this is the moment when these things are finally possible and that is why i believe we need to redouble our efforts to achieve them. Lets embrace everyone regardless why would the advocate ado, you can control the question. You cannot control the answer. He did not answer it. Duly noted. My question is to bill de blasio. Bill, i think we all agree that stop and frisk is a serious issue and needs to be confronted seriously. The ad that you just put up a few days ago talks about how you are the only one in new york city of all of the candidates who will and the stop and frisk era, and minorities being profiled them that dust is not true, bill. Any of the people in candidates on this day to have come out and said that they would also eliminate stop and frisk. Or that they would make sure that the people are not profile. Bill, the New York Times has reported the ad is inaccurate. Why dont you take it down . It, i think about its important that you stop lying to the people of new york city. [applause] to end the crisis of stop and frisk, and the aero where people of color have been unfairly targeted and unconstitutional practices were taken place, we ave to do new things, getting new Police Commissioner, we need an independent and i emphasize the word independent Inspector General and we need a law ending racial profiling. We need all three of those things. Mr. Thompson, this agrees with the legislation that would give us an independent Inspector General and it would legally ban racial profiling. Ms. Twain disagrees, as we heard a moment ago, with the ban on racial profiling and wants to keep ray kelly as Police Commissioner. Im the only candidates who will do the three things to actually and the stop and frisk. Thats a fact and i stand by it. [applause] ms. Quinn. Comptrolleron is to thompson, a followup on the discussion weve been having so far. As you said, the New York Times has characterize the ad words as he is the only one who makes wrong. And and the and frisk as misleading and inaccurate. Are you satisfied with the answer you just got . [applause] thank you. [applause] clicks away to a street smart to allow that one. Way too street smart. Its nice to be popular. Not satisfied with the answer. If anything, you talk about your bill, i one, first, dont need legislation or lectures from you on this issue and i dont need legislation. It takes a man with courage and conviction to and stop him frisk end stop and frisk. We need to make sure the way to end the way it is used does not violate peoples cant use no right this is just a part of a pattern. Violates peoples constitutional rights. Wanted to beyou the speaker of the new york city council, you supported changing term limits through legislation. Itemsyou were against after you are no longer on the city council. When you were there, you were a huge beneficiary. If you go back and look at the tv show to tell the truth, will be real bill de blasio please stand up . [applause] in professional wrestling they allow tag teams. If we are going to do that here, i will say this. Its very clear, and mr. Thompson will remember the history clearly, i led the opposition to the mayors proposal on term limits. I led the action on the floor of the city council against it and it was the closest vote the history of the city council and im very proud to have stood up to the mayor when the speaker gave him a backroom deal to allow him to have a third term he should not have had. Mr. Thompson knows those are the facts. I think we have aired out the issue. John liu. We have two billy, latelys joining this issue when for months and years i have supported it. My question is to Bill Thompson. For a long time, the city was outsourcing all kinds of work left and right, bringing inexpensive consultants. I was very proud of the record i established of saving 4 billion of taxpayer money, a record that is very clear, a record that the public advocate does not have, a record the speaker does not have and under Bill Thompsons watch, this project was supposed to cost 63 million and by the time i took office, it had mushroomed to over 700 million i put a stop immediately to any more money going into that. What happened, bill . How did he get from 63 million to over 700 million . Youre the one who cuts the checks. What happened . The mayors contract was something that the mayor was focused on. I stayed on top of mayor bloomberg. I stayed on top of the person he had in charge, the budget director of the city of new york and pressured and posted them. The contract had expanded in scope, as you well know, which led to the escalation. Could i have done more . Absolutely. Could the mayor have done more . Definitely. Could the city council in providing supervision do more . A lot of things could have been done and were not. You not your point was made. Mr. Albanese. My question is for bill de blasio staffers tweeted out kill the police. Accurate right there. Let me finish my question. Decision butght you employ those staffers . Yes or no . You have given and inaccurate question and i will not give you a question an answer based on that. I have worked closely with the nypd for 20 plus years and i officershe nypd, many and precinct commanders are looking forward to a day where we can bring police and Community Back together. I have heard from so many commanders off record that the stop and frisk air and the quotas that communityk with members and gain the information they needed to actually fight crime, so i have an mens respect for the men and women of nypd. They are the heroes in the 20 plus years in crime decline. They need new policies that will actually support them. Ok, mr. Weiner. I have a question about the Slush Fund Scandal which i do not think has been answered. Almost 5 million. You, yourself, mentioned it was for your political leverage. , money used, our taxpayer money, that it be released. You said you were not going to do that. But answer one question. During the period of this time, bill de blasio was a member of your negotiating team, so there during,urprises before, or after the primary election. Can you assure us that he is not implicated in any way, that there is no mention of him in anyway . If there is no release of the report, can you at least assure us of that . First, i am not sure of what talkingr. Weiner is about. What we have has been turned over to the authorities and looked out. This isaspersions on just outrageous, and i want to make it very clear that anything that mr. Weiner is trying to point to, i do not have any idea what he is talking about, and i think it is really unfortunate. [applause] question, letthe me say to the speaker, when i became speaker, did i inherit a very problematic budget process . Yes, and i did exactly what you want a leader to do. When i found out about that problematic practice, i reported it to the authorities and asked them to investigate it. I stopped it, and then i reformed the entire process relating to discretionary funds. It is now heralded by one of tonights sponsors as one of the best is not the best way to distribute money to community groups. Look, if you are mayor, we all are not going to have any idea going to come across our desk, but what you want in a mayor is someone who admits a problem, asks for help, does an investigation, stops what is wrong, and fixes it, and that is what i did, and i am very proud of it. [cheers and applause] assuming you are being sarcastic when you say i cast aspersions. Three of your members went to jail on your watch, and you refused to release the product, so i asked the question so there are no lastminute surprises in these elections. You have it. Just say de blasio it. Just say that mr. De blasio is not included, just say that mr. De blasio is not in it, and we are done. Year d for the more law year attorney. Probably follow up. There wasmove on, something in the press that involve the public advocate and his wife, and i went to give you the opportunity, which you can decline, if you like, to clear the air. There were some statements about Christine Quinn. There was some backandforth about whether it whether it was reported accurately or not, and there was an exchange of letters, a lot of confusion. Say i have want to no idea what he was talking about, and i want to say thank you for his response. The statement and the call him times is ayork misquote. It is very clear. My wife meant no offense. It was so we had afterSchool Programs for our children, and she simply disagreed with the approach that speaker quinn has taken on that issue, and i think it was a respectful and and intive statement, the case of my wifes comment, it was from a parent, speaking about what parents need in the city and what they are your thing to see in the politics moving forward, which we have not seen in the bloomberg years. I think it was substantive and respectful. The comments, as they were fully reported and corrected by the colonists are ones, i have to say, i found very hurtful and upsetting because they basically raised the question of whether or not the fact that i do not have children is relevant to how hard i would fight for families. First of all, i fight as hard as anyone in the city of new york for families and children. That is why next month, we will have mandatory kindergarten in the city of new york, at the real issue here is there are many reasons why some families have children and some families do not. Medical reasons, financial reasons, professional reasons, and my wife and i both lost our motherss when we were young girls, so the decision is a deeply personal one, and i just think this is obviously the attack we have seen in this kind of a political race, but raising someones family, and we in new york have families of all shapes and sizes. It should have never happened, and it was very hurtful in my household. [applause] i wish people would look at the accurate statement which was now put out by the New York Times, not allowing a vote, opposing a tax, and it is not personal, it is substantive. All right, lets have our lightning round. Lets start with anthony weiner, and the first question will be this question will be, yes. Someone may have a short answer, as well. Should all Public Employees be required to live in the city . No. No. No. Lets start with mr. Albanese this time, have you been to a baseball game this season . I have not this season. I have, yes, not major league though. Yes, once. No. This season. No time for baseball this year, sadly. No, sir. Ok, we will start with john liu. Should there be more surveillance cameras in our city . Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Ms. Quinn, have you ever texted while driving . [laughter] no. Yes, i have. I have stopped doing it though. I have a driver, so i am allowed to. That is a good answer. My wife is sitting in the front road, and if i said no, she would laugh me out of the house. Yes, i have sinned. I have stopped now the. Mr. Albanese . [applause] it is a tough act to follow. No. Mr. Liu . I have, but i have never smoked pot. We will start with mr. Thompson, do you have a metra card in your parket . Yes. No. Bs. Yes. I have got mine, too. Ms. Quinn, in your pocket or purse . In my pocket book. Have you ever taken the subway without paying . No. No. No. Yes, but had my school bus pass. No. No. If you arelasio, elected, will you live in Gracie Mansion . I will let the people decide that. That was not a yes or no. Held yes. My wife and i, we love our house, but we will be glad to live there. I think it is a jinx to answer questions like that before you have the option to move in, so i will not answer. It is the peopless house, so, yes. Mr. Wiener, if you have to have one of your rivals on the stage to work in your administration, who would it be, and what job would you give him . In charge ofse Early Childhood development. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Who would i select . The reverend. Chaplain. Mr. Liu . Freshill be looking for people with new faces. Nobody. Ms. Quinn. Bill thompson to make sure the minority owned businesses of women get to the best level. I do not think i am taking any jobs in the administration. If it was, reverend salgado in faithbased development. To all ofoffer a job them, but i do not know if they will accept them. Take one, and give them a job. Pick one . I would like to say sal albanese , but i do not have a proposal. In what job . I would have to think about it. I respect my colleagues, but i also would be looking for an all new team. I have my own plan. I do not support the bloomberg measure. I did, because it would have provided more out of bro transit. Yes. Not now. The mayor approve of bloomberg proposal, no. Mr. Wiener, no. Mr. Liu, have you taken a book out of the Public Library this year. It was for my son. I have not. Absolutely not. [laughter] i have not have the chance. I have a bookstore as my business, so i do not need to. Out aave driven to take book, but i did not text while driving. Mr. Wiener . No. Should students be allowed to have cell phones in school . Absolutely. Definitely. Yes, but not in the classroom. They should check them in and check them out. It should be up to their parents, but yes. Yes. Should, mr. Thompson, should you be free to drink a beer on your own . Yes. At all. Er yes. Yes, and i should be able to drink them on the beach and at a park, two. Yes. Yes. Let me ask one more, and then we will move on to our other questions. Should helmets be mandatory for bike riders . Yes. It should be for a city sponsored program, and that is something that will keep us with bike riders and pedestrians safe. No. Yes. Strongly encouraged but not mandatory. Enough of the nanny state. No. Thank you, candidates. Lets get back to our central questions, and we will get through as many as we can in the time remaining. Our time is growing short, and we have to allow time for closing statements, and if i interrupt, it is for that reason and that reason only. Avenue are years from now, it 80 years from now, what is going to be your legacy . The mayor bloomberg options for the city with the pedestrian plaza and bicycle lanes and smoking free areas, what would be your physical imprint in this guideline, on the street of new york city . Mr. Thompson . Be rememberede to for education, and, obviously, if there is a physical part, it would be more schools and schools that are in better shape, but i want my legacy to be new york citys Education System being better, that the achievement gap be closed at schools, and if you want to talk physical plants, that schools are not closed any longer, that we have turned those schools around, that young people are able to do collegelevel work, that they are able to go off and do jobs. The physical plant, i would say schools built, but the truth is education. That is what i want to be remembered as. Mr. Wiener . They talked about how bloomberg transformed the skyline by shiny new market rate housing. The challenge facing the middle. Lass may not be things that go this is the guy who wanted to i think we have to improve our schools, things that do not go into a diorama on the first page, but things that citizens can see and touch that are real. Most new yorkers watching this program will not be able to move into the market rate housing of michael bloomberg. That is the problem. I do not care if it is big or small, but we need it for them. I want to be remembered as a mayor who fought for all of the inhabitants of new york city, especially those who are basically enslaved in this modern kind of slavery, where there are millions of latinos is himve that slavery polished. Dr. Reverend Martin Luther king fought for his people. I want to remember be remembered for the latino people. Thank you. We are talking about this because we know we have challenges with Climate Change, and we are going to have to change the way new york looks. Changes are not about the appearance of the city. I want to be known as the mayor who created jobs. We have an Unemployment Rate that is higher than the National Average. We have jobs that are being created, but for some reason, the Unemployment Rate continues to go up, and it is not just because people are coming to new york. Fix thee need to situation. We have got to bring down unemployment. We also have to bring down unemployment disparities, because i would like to be known just not as the man who created the jobs but to afford opportunities to everybody on a level Playing Field, an equal opportunity is what we need to restore for the city of new york. I want to be remembered as the mayor with the capital of common sense, the capital of capital ofth a culture. We should be the common sense city. I want to be remembered as somebody who put lands into place to make sure that the city can survive the next hundred years. Our infrastructure, we have to protect our shoreline and our power grid. This is not the thing that gets you votes, but it is very important create i want to prepare the city for the next 100 years. When i leave the city, i want people to say that i made the place a better place, in terms of schools and in terms of treating people fairly. At the end of my eight years in office, one of the most important things would be to see that there is more people in the middle class than there are at the beginning of my term. That is one thing i am going to want to fight for and make sure happens, more folks in the middle class. Two, at the end of those eight have, i want them to 40,000 more apartments that they can live in, and i am going to take efforts to bring rent down to make sure middleclass people can stay in new york city. We want to make a housing livable for the 600,000 folks who live there are living and quality conditions. Schoolto lengthen our day and stop spending millions on textbooks and spend more on tablet so schools are in the 21st century and make new york Climate Change ready. Change . Ajor in the skyline of the city . The challenge of our times is addressing the inequality of the city, and there are ways of doing it. It is not about building fancy new skylines and luxury condos preit there is pressure to close down community hospitals, so what i want to do is protect unity hospitals, build Affordable Housing over the next 10 years by striking a new balance with the Real Estate Industry where the public comes first rather than the developers, so we can actually get fullday prekindergarten and devote ourselves to that and after school, and these are the policies that invest in Human Capital, that make sure we are a city that is not going to accept 46 of our People Living at or near the poverty level, but that we are creating a city for everyone again. Do, but lot we have to the mayor of new york city has a lot of resources. My focus is on ending inequality in new york city. Thank you. Now, it is time for closing statements. We will start with will de blasio, and we will time you for one minute. Please keep it to their. I will pick it up. We are living a tale of two cities, people at or near the poverty level, and our middle class is disappearing. We need a real break from the bloomberg years. Instead of more luxury condominiums, we need a plan for Affordable Housing, as i said, and a plan to Save Community hospitals, because health care has to be available to people locally. When you need the emergency room, you need to know that it is nearby, and i devote myself this. Tecting and the stop and frisk, that has so unfairly targeted people of color. We have to stop living a tale of two cities, and we cannot leave any new yorker behind, and that is what i would do as mayor of new york city. I am not a politician. I am just a new yorker. It is very difficult. I have been discriminated against and for economic reasons. The Quinnipiac University does yet,ant to include me, and there is 37 in the Republican Party. I believe it is essential for all new yorkers to be able to actually come and serve and then go back to the private sector. Any new not allow yorker to be able to do so, we are putting ourselves in jeopardy. I believe we have to stop stop and frisk, and i believe my addressed. Ve been so, yes, we have to be very involved, and we have more than 900 87,000 registered latino democrats. It will be me and Christine Quinn in the runoff. You. Ank mr. Thompson. Two weeks ago, the scores came out, and the truth became apparent. More than 80 of our black and latino students were not performing on level. The were not deemed by scores as competent, and so many of our children, it is clear that the Education System was not suiting them, was not performing for our young people. I am the school of a new york city Public School teacher. My mother taught for 30 years. I believe education is the greatest way we can turn inequality around in the city of new york. Thent to fix schools in city, not close them. I want to make sure we work with our teachers and principals, not demonize them. I want to bring parents in and have them work with the School System so it serves their children. I do not want to be the education mayor. It is not about me. I want to make new york the education city. It is about you and our one million children and providing a Better Future for each and everyone of you. That that is why i want to be the mayor of the city. Thank you. Ms. Quinn . Thank you. My entire career, i have fought and delivered for new yorkers, fighting to help people get to the middle class and stay there, and that is what i am going to do as mayor. I am going to fight to give them the best shot they have. I am going to keep this the safest large city in america, and i am going to do it while ending unconstitutional stop and frisk. I am going to use the power of our neighborhoods for Economic Development to bring good jobs in every neighborhood, particularly those neighborhoods that have been left behind. I am going to take head on the affordability crisis. People cannot find homes and apartments they cant afford, so i am going to make sure we build more Affordable Housing, improve the housing authority, and get new york city over its own rent law. We are the greatest city of the world, and we can be even greater when we create more opportunity for folks to move into the middle class. That is what i have done my entire career, delivered for new york, and that is what i am going to do for mayor, and i ask for your vote tonight. Thank you. Applause]d mr. Liu. I am an unlikely candidate for mayor, getting my degree in physics, spending most of my adult career outside of governmental politics, but i entered politics because i wanted to see a change creates i wanted to make a difference, and as City Council Member and controller, i am proud of my record, shaving taxpayer money so Additional Service cuts and reductions would not be necessary, and looking at our investment record, i am very proud of the last fiscal years of 58 investment return on our Pension Funds and creating jobs by accelerating our Capital Construction plan. I have talked about, and i intend to enact changes that are very progressive for the city of new york and that level the Playing Field and include more people. I am proud to be the consistent progressive candidate in this race, and i need your help. Spanish] gracias. Gracias. Albanese mr. . I am proud to be the only one not taking money from city hall. That i have to make a statement about Public Safety because it has been politicized in this campaign. The fact of the matter is that we all agree that there were killed many steps. The department had made headway. Stops had declined 30 in the city because of the great training that the department has theived, and we are on right track, and i am concerned about my opponents in this race, that they are doing things that are going to handcuff our Police Officers and cause them to sit around twiddling their farms. Officersmon sense that have the right, have the right to stop someone if they believe there is reasonable suspicion, and i do not think we should play politics with the police of this city like we are doing in this campaign. I am horrified that all of my colleagues demonize Police Officers. They compare them to a George Zimmerman vigilante. Some of them are compared to not nazis. Ot see thank you. Mr. Wiener . Soon, it would be your turn create you get to decide what you want in the new mayor, and if you want more of the same, you have got plenty of choices on this stage, but if you believe we need a fighter for the middle class and someone with a specific land, here it is. We need to take 20 of the housing and reserve it to the middle class. We need to protect Police Officers, who are required to wear cameras on their lapels, recording what they do. We need to restore jobs, cover everyone, and save taxpayer money. We need to get back to basics in our schools and restore discipline so teachers can teach and students can learn, and we need to pay teachers a little bit more to take the toughest assignments in the School System, something that some have opposed. Look, we need a real plan. We do not need more of the same. My name is anthony weiner, and i want to be your mayor. Thank you. Question, this will be one of our lightning round type of responses, and we will go right down the line, starting. Ith mr. De blasio make your location known at all times, including on weekends and vacations . Yes. Yes. Yes. And i vacation in the rockaways. Yes. Let me try another one. If you could be mayor of another city anywhere, what would it be . Irishould be mayor of the riviera, rockaway, new york. Chicago. I do not know of any other city like new york. There is nowhere else. Whofter new york city, would want to be mayor of any other place . If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, so you should stay here. Let me try another one, a quick one. Every year, the budget process leaves threats to cut very important services, including senior centers. If elected, what is one agency or service that you would want to make offlimits baseline or by any other means to take it out of the annual budget gap . Nothing. School system. Notou cannot say there are cuts in every agency. Every agency has areas. If you could take one out, what would it be . I went to cut out waste, and i want to cut out where they are in efficient. If there is an agency that should be left out, our seniors. No cuts in Senior Citizens services. One area that is morally wrong to cut is services for homeless and runaway youth, and i would add to it over the years. Thank you, very much, candidates. That is all the time we have for this debate. I want to thank you for joining it, and here is a reminder that the general election is november 5, and another reminder, along with these debates, there is the official nonpartisan voter guide, and this has introduced a new mobile platform which makes this available at your fingertips. That is available at the so much for thanks watching. Have a great evening. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] span, ourre on c coverage is courtesy of new york one. Up next, the town hall this evening as we are doing every tuesday, wednesday, and thursday during the congressional recess. We are focusing on policy and asking you to participate in our cspan town hall. Following that debate, we want to ask you why you watch political debates. An on year, 2013, but there are a number of key races, and what you just saw there was new york city, and, of course, the governors races in virginia and new jersey. Debates . U watch these an abbreviated version of the town hall until 9 00 p. M. Eastern, and republicans can , democrats, and independents. Some of your tweets and also look at members of congress as they conduct their town hall members. Again, only half an hour this evening, so we would love to hear from you on why you watch political debates. Former spokesman for the white house and participating in the president ial Debate Commission, a short while ago, they talked about the importance of president ial debates and how he thinks they inform voters on the upcoming election. Here are some brief comments on what was said, and then we get to your phone calls. We know from polling that by the time we get to the general election, remember the last one was october 22, the number of undecided voters at that point is smaller, and that is because they have been exposed to a long length of time, the primary phase of the campaign, and because he are increasingly becoming very polarized in our politics, democrats know who they are going to vote for, republicans know who they are going to vote for, but the largest fastestgrowing section is the independent one, so by the time you get through the october debates, there are very few that are true undecided, but there are probably quite a number of voters, maybe as high as 30 or so, that are either ambivalent or are looking for something that says i think this is my decision, and i am looking for information that either confirms my decision or makes me think again, and i think that is the role bees debates play. They provided normatively important glimpses into the personality, character, abilities of the people that we are going to elect, and that is part of a process that is different. Running for president of the United States is not like running for governor of california or a congressman. It is a different experience because we want, as americans, to be personally engaged with the personality of the president. It is not like any other office, and part of what these debates do is they solidified that relationship with the person we eventually elect, that what they will have with the American People, and there is some context to know what they are. We do not have kings and queens. We have a president , and the relationship we have with the president is a different one than with most of the other elected offices in the country. Back in june, he is chairman of the president ial Debate Commission. At question for you on cspan town hall, why do you watch political debates, and we will go to our phones first, christopher on the democrats line. Good evening. Good evening. I definitely agree with some of the things that he set about why people watch the president ial debate, but for me, it is also a chance to look at the candidates in an environment where it is not just your typical soundbites that you may see at a rally. It gives them opportunity to issues, speak to the best party, but the of the debate is a cross examination, where the candidates are able to ask each other questions to find the right answers, so that is why i like to watch. We are seeing some video of the last years, the debate between president obama and mitt romney. Christopher, do you ever remember seeing a debate and saying based on that debate performance, i am going to vote for that candidate . One, i guessam not when i watch a debate, i kind of already know who i want to vote for. But, as you said, that first debate, i believe that president obama, he was not at his best. The second debate and the third debate, he really showed how president ial he was, and he took control of the topic, and the one everyone talks about was about the benghazi attack, and president obama said it would be the last thing he would do as president and commander in chief is politicize any kind of american death, and the mitt romney reaction to that, it really just showed that he was an amateur when it aimed to dealing with things on a National Level like that, so i think that was a definite watershed moment, the second and third debate during the 2012 election. Thank you for our call. Jason, from houston, the republican line. Jason, are you there . I think we lost him. Is on the organ independent line. Tanks for cspan. I watched the president ial debates for the same reasons i watch cspan. It shows me, and the person, his body language, and it is not filtered through the news media, and i sometimes get a kick of viewing somebody and how it is spun on the national news. Did you say you get a kick seeing them squirm . No, i get a kick out of seeing how the news media spins the story. Spins. That is why i like to see it live. York watching your new mayoral debate, and i do not know these people, but those people could be in eight years running for president , and it is nice to see how they reacted to different questions, and i know they are not the same, but it is a debate. Base my decision on a debate, but it just lets me know the person better. It was a big lineup on that democratic stage. I didnt want to remind you also that we will air the debate again on our companion network, cspan2, at 11 00 p. M. Eastern, and that is 8 p. M. Pacific, and midnight is when tonights debate will air again. It is an off year, 2013. New york has a may your election, but the fundraising for candidates continues. There is an article in politico about the senatorial fundraising for democrats and republicans, and the headline they maintain a money edge. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee outweighs the republican Senatorial Campaign committee i less than 1 billion, maintaining a steady advantage in the battle for the control of the senate. They took in just under 3. 4 million last month. Officials said this brings the hall to 30. 7 Million Dollars on the democratic side in the senate compared to 2. 6 million in july for the new york Republican Party. Back to our calls. Palmdale, florida, our democrat line. With jfk and nixon. I think what would be helpful would be to get the candidates who do not have the 15 or lower to be included, and that would be a great help in making a good decision. I also think that the debates by subject or issue is very good. Is there a chance, you mentioned under 15 , is there a chance where you have a situation like you had in new york, and engaging debate, but you have so many potential residential candidates. Would it crowd the stage too much . I do not know that it would crowd the debate, the candidates too much. When you have that many candidates, i think it would be better to include the two hours or 2. 5 hours or split it up, have half of them one night or Something Like that. John, thanks for the call. Lets go to new jersey next. They have a big campaign for governor obviously. Lets hear from john from new jersey, republican collar. Good evening. Go ahead. Like to of all, i would say that i really enjoy cspan. It is very real. Whatever is on cspan is very interesting. That is number one, and i look at debates as competition. Candidates competing against and i cannot make a decision by watching a debate, but i would say the new york debate, what a weak collection of candidates for a city like new york, and also, the moderator, asking dumb questions, which, you know, for a city like new york, i would expect that how close is your town to new york . To philadelphia . Yes, closer to philadelphia. Lets look at the race you have for governor, with chris christie. The governors race. Be a is going to landslide, chris christie. Any debates yet in new jersey on the governors side . If they have, i have not seen it. Neither have we, and i guess at some point in the future, we will be airing those. Eggs, john, for your call. Goington, independent line, ahead. Thank you for taking my call. I would like to say that i think you all have a great show. I am kind of a news junkie. Who tellse only one the truth. I like to watch the political debates, because as your caller mentioned earlier, it is like two boxers going against each other, what have you, and also for those of us who want to be informed about the politicians an are running, giving us idea of exactly where they stand, and also how they are really going to be able to function under pressure. Whether in new york or the president of the United States, there is a lot of responsibility, giving the voters exactly an idea of how they are going to handle it, but you do not know until they get in office, but, again, ask for taking my call. We have some video from our cspan video archives, going back to 2000, the governor of texas, george w. Bush, and al gore the Vice President , and i believe this was at st. Louis. Chair and cochairman of the Debate Commission talked about debates in terms of the perception it gives potential voters, how those voters perceive the candidates through television. Here is what he had to say. Very important, because there is one thing i have learned, having now done 26 of these, is that the American People want to like the president. And i have a theory. I have talked to mike about this. The television lens is very interesting. Some people can go right through that lens like butter. People like ronald reagan. People like bill clinton, president obama. Other candidates hit the lens, and they bounce off. They cannot get through. For some reason, they have trouble communicating. Leader,re going to be a you have to be able to communicate create you have to be able to get through the lens, so i think doing a series of different formats televising them, a lot of people do this on the radio. A lot of people are listening or streaming, whatever they may do, but i think the best way for people to make up their mind and make up their determination, as mike said, as to whether or not they can see that person being in the oval office, being a leader, standing up to other leaders around the world in negotiation or whatever it may be, and i hear the argument, and credibility tome it, but i believe my way is the best way. This cspan town hall asking you why you watch political debates, along with the mayors debate in new york city. Ourgia, air act is on democrat line. Go ahead. Thanks, cspan, and thanks for taking my call on the air. I wanted to speak tonight after of the newis debate york candidates, and i want to say very clearly with respect that this has made up for what handshaking and rallies did for us in the past. I want to say, with all due i believe there should be more inclusion of these debates allowing another voice to be heard. Allow more people who are disenfranchised with the Democratic Party or Republican Party to speak up and have another voice, as we saw in 1992 and that certainly did not help, and Democratic Candidates bill clinton won. I would like to see that in the future, and i want to thank everyone for taking my call, and i certainly hope that whoever yorks next mayor is from mentioned the debates 1992. It did go back to 1992. This is the first town hall debate between ross perot, george bush, and candidates bill clinton. Staying in georgia here, we go to martin, who is on our republican line. Georgia. Hi. Call. You for taking my long listener, firsttime caller. I really do appreciate what cspan does for the cable networks. It is hard to find something of an intellectual level throughout , and the channels things like bees debates, they give us listeners i am a i enjoy tv all day, and i am a republican. This democratic debate, i think it was excellent. Information lot of about the big apple, so i wish them the best of luck this november, and we will hold it down down in the south. Thank you very much for taking my call. A story nearby new york city. Hi, jake. You are on the air. Go ahead. Thank you. I think personally, and i think and thankhink cspan. It could go either way. Independent. There is a lot from what we have seen today, and none of them really qualified to be mayor of new york. New york needswe have got so many problems, especially with bloomberg who made the city like his own property, and i think it is a shame. It is a very weak field. There was a caller who said he was a republican who likes the debate. There was nothing in it. You are calling from a story a, and that is queens, and you will vote in this election, right . Do not vote in the primaries. I vote in the general election. I could go either way, but i am so upset with what happened. And we needr years, a conservative pragmatic who understands new york. New york has very special needs. It is such a big economy. The field there in new york, democratic candidate, republican, appealingt is so far to you . Not so far, no, especially when i watched the debate. It is like a farce. None of them really qualify. I could go either way. I voted for democrats, and i voted for republicans, as well, but it is just such a weak and i think new york voters should wake up. This is a big city. We want to really tackle all of these problems, and we needed. All right, jake, thanks for your call. More coming up as we ask why you watch political debates. In major story coming out terms of National Security was the sentencing today of Army Private Bradley manning. Here is the headline this afternoon. Manning sentenced to 35 years for leaking government secrets. We spoke to the reporter who contributed to this article earlier today. Is the person covering the trial for the New York Times. Crimes that Bradley Manning was convicted and sentenced for . There were convictions on 20 counts, and they included counts of violating the espionage act, five counts of stealing government property, and the fraud and abuse act as well. Avoid the most serious charge. He was acquitted of aiding the enemy, which the government had pursued against him, and unprecedented decision for a leak case. Did the prosecution lay out how damaging these were, and how did they respond during the trial . Damaging the how ofeases were, however, a lot what happened in the trial happened behind closed doors, especially because they said they were handling classified information when they talked about the specific harm that was done. A lot of what was described in had to deal with describing how diplomatic relations had been based on what witnesses in what had been heard i apologize. What witnesses said. They talked to pakistan. They talked to south america. And part of the damage was some endangering the lives of individuals, not just those who work with american forces, and some have criticized the government, saying they were not able to provide enough concrete private manning was a wellintentioned is not naive person. He found what he thought was troubling things that he thought the rest of the public should see. He showed the public what was going on in war and possibly looked at ending the war in afghanistan or a rack, and so it was an idealistic and naive claim in a lot of ways, but they argued that that was behind the decision to leak these files. Well, there is obviously reaction to the 35 year was ace, and there Statement Released earlier this afternoon that said, in part, sentencears is a light given the vast damage he did to our security and the need to send a strong signal to others who may be tempted to disclose pacified information. This is a dangerous conclusion. Is the setting a ground floor about an attempt for a pardon . And what have his attorney said about that . The attorneys talked in terms of the prosecution using private manning as an example in a lot of ways to dissuade future leakers. The sentencebout for him, which according to the wyer,defense liar la that they were trying to dissuade the jury because it would show how serious the government would come down on you if you leak classified information. The sentence is for 35 years. How many yearss so far . The judge has said he has served over 1000 days, and that sentencea 112 days where the judge determined it was unlawful confinement pretrial in a military jail, at times in solitary confinement, so that would be not deducted but used as time served, and it is not clear how much of the about parole, there is some disagreement we are trying to clear up. The defense attorney said a short time ago that they would try to pursue a president ial pardon initially to have the rest of his sentence commuted or to use it as time served already. It is not clear whether they and it mightssful, be a little optimistic. We will see. Also, they are pursuing something else. They say it may not be on till late 2014 or early 2015, and we will have to see where that goes, but at this point, they are just moving forward. She has been covering the Bradley Manning trial for the paper, and you can follow her also on twitter. Thank you for the update. Thanks for having me. Hall, here on cspan town back to your comments on why you watch political debates. At cle of tweets first span chat. Here is one who says he is a junkie. He says one more from nick that says our own sort of lightning round, taking a last couple of calls, and we go to lay low on our democrats line, and you are in michigan, right . Yes, i am. Go ahead with your comment. Well, i want to know what is going on in the world. That is why i watch. I watch the news program. I listen to msnbc, and i listen to cspan, and i am a channel switcher, and i listen to the and i love people, and i am 80 years old, and i have had a Beautiful Life and worry about our childrens life to be. For your call. Lets go through a couple quickly. Stewart in washington on our independent line. Why do you watch debate . Like otherst of all, callers, i would like to praise cspan2 giving it to us unvarnished and without chatter. I watch because i like to look at consistency and the disposition of candidates. I watched all 19 republican debates, and that gave me a real good chance to, again, watch for those things. You watched all 19 last year . Every single one. There must be an award for that. I do not know anyone else who did. I tried to find people to talk about it, but i could not. The commentator, what i think was like a fact check that corrected mr. Romney, i would like to see more of that going forward. Is important for us to get the facts on these, and i would like to see them when there is that opportunity. The other thing i would say i do not like is they seem to be a bit too controlled to me. You will hear these rumors that the candidate stick tape what will not be asked and how they will be arranged and those kinds of things. Stewart, we will let you go there and see if we can get one more caller. We will go to peggy in North Carolina to get the last comment on why you watch political debates. Go ahead, peggy. I like to watch because i like to make up my own mind about things. Because there is nobody flexing their eyebrow and giving you a look. If you watch a republican watch thef you democratic stations, and i would like to make up my own mind, and i enjoy watching. Tonight, i really liked watching span. Ayors debate on c i was pleasantly surprised that new york city has as many problems as North Carolina, and we have been very, very vilified thehe press, and i see that New York Times has enough in new york city that they can tune to them and leave us alone. I will let you go there. Thanks for your comments. A reminder that you can see the debate again on cspan2 with a preview at midnight, and more conversation coming up on cspan and cspan radio tomorrow morning. On washington journal, a preview of the president s 2 dave was to her, and with the cato institute, a report on the rising costs of Social Security disability insurance, and looking at the future of the Lockheed Martin lightning two Strike Fighter program, and then a senior contributor for defense on his article on what the nsa were charged probably looks like, all of that tomorrow morning beginning at 7 00 a. M. On cspan and cspan radio, and tomorrow, a two they bus to her, talking about College Costs syracuse, newin york, that will be live on c
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