Harrisburg politics has been called many things but boring was never one of them.
"That's entertaining," mayoral candidate Lewis Butts gushed, immediately after Tuesday's debate was over. "The ratings are going to go through the roof."
Here are a few highlights for those who didn't tune in for the live televised debate sponsored by PennLive and CBS21 at the Harrisburg Area Community College's Midtown location. The primary is scheduled May 16.
1. The party crasher.
We'll start with the most surprising, and perhaps least interesting, of the night's twists and turns. Near the end of the debate, Socialist candidate Chris Siennick stepped between the Democratic primary candidates and the cameras to promote his November mayoral bid--his skateboard in hand the whole time.
"I figured I had to crash the party a little bit," Siennick said, in an interview after the debate.
This unexpected guest drew laughter from the audience, although most of the candidates and the moderators seemed less amused. Afterward, Butts approached the 27-year-old to congratulate him--encouraging Siennick to pose with him for this classic photo:
Harrisburg mayoral candidate Lewis Butts, right, with "party crasher" Chris Siennick after Tuesday's debate.
2. No love lost.
The debate format, in which moderators went down the row of primary candidates with the same question, discouraged the kind of tit-for-tat sniping we saw at last year's presidential debates. Nonetheless, incumbent Mayor Eric Papenfuse and former City Council President Gloria Martin-Roberts still found opportunities.
"I don't have a favorite neighborhood," Martin-Roberts said, a thinly veiled barb against Papenfuse. "I will start focusing on those neighborhoods that have been overlooked for a very long time."
This, of course, refers to the long-simmering tension between Harrisburg's redevelopment of the Midtown and downtown areas versus the uptown and Allison Hill sections, which have generally seen less investment.
When it was Papenfuse's turn to speak, he called his opponent out by name: "I care about all of the city equally--and I find Gloria Martin-Roberts' rhetoric divisive."
Later in the night, she retorted: "There's nothing about me that's divisive but I'm going to say this: Take a ride when you leave, go to the neighborhoods you've been riding through many, many years and see if they don't look the same."
"Change takes time," Papenfuse responded. "It's clear we're making progress."
3. No love lost, part 2.
Martin-Roberts wasn't the only candidate to direct her fire at the current mayor.
Jennie Jenkins was asked a series of questions Tuesday about her past as a Harrisburg police officer. She had previously ducked questions about her departure from the force amid theft charges--she ultimately entered a diversion program and paid $350 for unintentional overpayment--and an incident where she lost two guns that were in her possession.
"I just don't choose to focus on something that happened 10 years ago and it keeps coming forward," Jenkins said of her past.
When pressed on whether her pending federal lawsuit against the city would impact her ability to serve as mayor, she had this to say: "[Papenfuse] won't be here, so there won't be anything to argue about."
4. Deliverables.
Amid the sniping from other quarters, Butts had a leavening effect on the proceeding. His wordplay and grandiose ideas elicited more applause and laughter from the audience as the evening wore on. Afterward, while several of the candidates milled about with members of their respective contingencies, he circulated through the crowd to shake hands and pose for photos and, as previously referenced, wish the Socialist well.
Some of the big ideas Butts kicked around during the debate included building a hydroelectric dam across the Susquehanna River (an idea once floated by former Mayor Stephen Reed), installing citywide Wi-Fi and building a trade center to educate city residents, who in turn could compete for local contracts.
Butts ended the night with this pledge: "If you elect me as mayor, I can deliver a plan that delivers those deliverables."
5. Fixing Harrisburg's finances.
Most of the candidates proffered similar plans for how to turn around Harrisburg's troubled finances. The watchword of the night was "economic development."
Anthony Harrell, an Iraq War veteran who's currently a Central Penn College student, emphasized safety: "As long as the city is weak and crime is rampant, nobody will want to come in the city."
Martin-Roberts said Harrisburg needs to balance community engagement with outside investment. "I want to bring people from the outside in to buy what people are calling blighted real estate here and see them as diamonds in the rough," she said.
Papenfuse, meanwhile, highlighted the work that has been done to balance the budget and build a surplus that could be used to reinvest in infrastructure. He also pointed to the new tax on people who commute into Harrisburg for work. "That has allowed us to have a very strong financial position now," he said.
For Jenkins, one of the solutions is for the city to take back its parking system. "When we do that," she said, "we'll be able to lower parking rates and make it more attractive to bring people back in Harrisburg."