By any other name …

The “candidate forums” on Oct. 12 sure felt an awful lot like debates. Between opening statements and closing statements, the audience in Chico City Council Chambers (and at home watching on TV) witnessed finger-pointing, sharp rebuttals, clarifications and contradictions.

That’s not to say the forums weren’t informative. On the contrary, they offered many voters their first—perhaps only—chance to assess the people behind the campaign signs.

The panelist table gave me an up-close view of the Board of Supervisors and City Council candidates but little sense of crowd reaction. So if my take seems different from yours, that’s one possible explanation. Or maybe we just disagree. Anyway, here are some things I took away from the forums:

I’d think twice before playing poker against Maureen Kirk. She bluffed the league and opponent Steve Bertagna in the supervisor session, pushing for closing statements after the allotted time had expired, suggesting she should go last, then dropping a series of bombs Bertagna didn’t have the chance to defuse.

Kirk has the goods; Bertagna is gooood. The District 3 candidates, in a run-off race, have well-documented differences in philosophy, namely regarding growth. What the forum illustrated is their different styles. Kirk’s statements and responses were data- and detail-oriented, sometimes not too polished. Bertagna’s, by contrast, were forceful and on the whole less specific.

“Full-time” is a relative term. Does it mean 40 hours a week or exclusivity? For Bertagna, it means the former—in his sharpest rebuttal, he said he has pared down his business schedule to the level where he could fulfill all his duties. Kirk has pledged to forgo her profession (dental hygiene) if elected.

You’d better believe it’s slate vs. field. The six candidates vying for three City Council seats most clearly illustrated their dividing line in questioning about Bidwell Ranch. Mark Sorensen, Michael Dailey and incumbent Dan Herbert are open to developing that open space if voters approve; Mary Flynn, Tom Nickell and incumbent Scott Gruendl oppose that notion. The first three are running as a slate; the second three are not, but lumping them into what Gruendl has called “a field” is a natural reaction.

Boy, could we use a sequel … The council session was harried from the outset. Big issues left undebated include the proposed downtown parking structure, the Mechoopda casino project, the animal shelter and Wal-Mart expansion.

Third parties welcome: Initially excluded, Libertarian and Green candidates will get to participate in Monday’s forum. The League of Women Voters initially limited the field to parties with at least 5 percent registration in the district of each race, but Democrat and Republican candidates asked for the inclusion of all their opposition. The Libertarians and Green had planned to protest before the event.