Northampton County Executive John Stoffa was there. So was Controller Steve Barron. Snarling in the front row - all by himself - sat the Northampton County Bulldog, Ron Angle. A small audience of about thirty people came to last night's Pen Argyl Area Concerned Citizens Debate at the Slate to watch congressional wannabe Siobhan "Sam" Bennett and LV Congressman Charlie Dent mix it up. The audience even included six blue T-shirted members of the Sierra Club, who came with homemade signs to promote Bennett.But where was Sam?
Two popular and dedicated public servants, state reps. Craig Dally and Rich Grucela, started things off at 7 PM. Neither has an opponent. Rich spoke about his desire to eliminate the state senate while Craig addressed the need for a state constitutional convention. Though they belong to different parties, Dally and Grucela share a bipartisan approach to issues, looking for areas of agreement as opposed to division.
Congressman Dent listened attentively, but where was Sam?
Around 7:35 PM, the debate moderator told the audience he was "extremely disappointed" that Bennett had failed to show up, and someone blurted out she was on her way. She showed up just as Charlie Dent was finishing his opening remarks. According to The Express Times, she was seven minutes late. Actually, it was closer to forty minutes. Debate rules had to be repeated for her. This is amazing conduct from a person who claimed Dent had been ducking her.
When she finally introduced herself and her campaign, it was in some kind of affected Southern accent. She also kept her coat on the entire evening.
Neither candidate said anything new. Questions were uninspired. Most disappointing, and unlike the format in years past, candidates were not permitted to interrogate each other. That's what distinguished Charlie Dent and Steve Barron in previous debates. That feature was dropped last night.
At the end of the allotted hour, the debate moderator was initially going to reward Bennett's tardiness by allowing her to debate on her own. But everyone just started getting up and the evening ended, not with a bang, but a whimper.
16 comments:
Traffic jam? The Slate Belt is pretty densely populated...
Padding her salary at POM?
She probably had to Mapquest Pen Argyl, thinking it was a sock plant or some place up thar where we be clingin' to our guns 'n' religion.
Vote Sam and Barry for a condescending change!
Baking cookies.
She showed up after her segment of the event was supposed to start? Good grief, how unprofessional. And to have let her continue speaking after the debate was over, but not her opponent? Why would the moderator think that would be OK? That would have been like rewarding her disrespectful tardiness and penalizing Rep. Dent for showing up on time and sitting through the first half of the evening's speeches.
Maybe she was looking for her shoe...
I think she was practicing the southern accent...or perhaps practicing the fine art of swooning so she could resort to that if things got rough...I loved it when she brought up T. Bone Pickens...I thought she was speaking of a new country music star...I can't believe she is a Congressional candidate! She is giving women candidates a bad name!
She was busy memorizing the names of world leaders.
She was standing in line at the bank runs at Wachovia and Sovereign Bank.
She wasn't late. Everyone else was early.
She's making plans for her next campaign.
She was waiting for light rail.
She was at Angle's farm with a Properties of Merit rake.
She was meeting w/ Ann McHale planning on moving to Northampton County (something about an open apartment at Bernie's complex) and running for office there since she's run/lost for every slot in Lehigh County.
She was taking a tour of possible new digs at Peg Ferraro's trailer.
She was hiring yet another new campaign manager.
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