Mayor Matt Ryan and challenger City Clerk Joe Merrill, both Democrats, brought Binghamton’s Democratic primary mayoral race to campus last Wednesday.
Binghamton University’s College Democrats and the Broome County Young Democrats worked together to organize the event in hopes of introducing students, faculty and community residents to their candidates before the primary election voting today between noon and 9 p.m.
According to Jenni Royer, former president of the Broome County Young Democrats, the organization was approached by representatives from BU’s College Democrats, who proposed the event.
“We felt it was important not only to the community as a whole, but to young adults who may live and work and shop and eat in Binghamton, which is the hub of our area,” she said.
The hour-long event was held in the Old Union Hall Wednesday, Sept. 9. Approximately 80 people attended.
“College Democrats decided to host a debate … because there was a definite need for a forum to be held between both candidates, to showcase both of their platforms and viewpoints,” said Laura Chaath, president of the Binghamton College Democrats.
“This was the only debate held between the two candidates. We wanted to educate voters, specifically students, and inform them of the issues.”
The event followed a classic town hall debate setup: members of the audience were handed an index card to write a question on, and the cards were collected by a moderator, WBNG’s Action News James Gaddis. Gaddis then chose which questions to ask.
“Mayor Ryan and Joe Merrill each had two minutes and thirty seconds to answer each question,” Chaath said.
Participants each gave an opening statement of five minutes, as well as a closing statement of two and a half. They answered nine questions.
The main topics of the debate included removing blighted properties, the economy, police and fire protection, increasing partnerships between the city and BU, small business initiatives and the environment.
“Candidates answered a wide range of questions pertaining to the economy, student representation in the mayor’s office and what they would do their first day in office,” Chaath said. “The topics that were covered concerned all groups and demographics in attendance.”
Both Merrill’s campaign manager Christopher Marion and Ryan expressed disappointment regarding the fact that the issue of Downtown student housing was not brought up.
At the last debate, which was four years ago, student housing in Downtown Binghamton was a topic of discussion, Ryan said.
“If it wasn’t for students, we would be a ghost town,” Ryan said.
Ryan said that he is an advocate for student housing, except in the Residential One (R-1) wards because he is “against carving up beautiful one-family homes.”
According to Ryan, student housing will be prominent in the Overlay District, where they are concentrating on clean student housing that preserves historic Downtown.
“Anybody trying to paint this administration as unfriendly to students just has to look at our record,” Ryan said. “I want the students to understand that we have really reached out to students and that we’re not trying to keep people out of the West Side.”
According to Marion, Merrill is also a strong advocate for student housing and wants to increase the security Downtown so students are more comfortable living in both residential houses and housing facilities off campus.
“The city needs to enact a policy that gives students the option of living in both residential houses and larger student housing facilities in and around Downtown Binghamton,” Marion said on behalf of Merrill’s campaign. “We also need to have appropriately sized police and fire departments in order to meet the safety needs of the students living Downtown so that they feel safe while they are walking to their apartment or going out to eat or whatever it is they are doing in the city.”
There is another debate in the works for October, to be sponsored by the League of Women Voters, for all of the candidates remaining in the mayoral race.
Both candidates have Facebook and Web sites. Merrill’s website is merrillformayor.com and Ryan’s is mayormattryan.com.