A spirited debate for the State Senate was followed by two “get-to-know-me” sessions by state assembly and city council challengers after their two opponents failed to appear at the last meeting of the Juniper Park Civic Association on Thursday, October 30th, 2008.
Serf Maltese and Joseph Addabbo went head-to-head in the first segment of the debate. They asked each other tough questions with regards to the economy, education, overdevelopment, quality of life, health care and transportation. The match was civil and informative.
Assemblywoman Marge Markey had responded that she would not be attending to debate her challenger, Tony Nunziato. However, Councilman Anthony Como failed to show up to debate challenger Elizabeth Crowley after promising in writing to attend.
The following e-mail was received on October 29th from the Como campaign at 12:34pm, after several back-and-forth exchanges regarding the Councilman's attendance at the debate:
“We were able to modify Thursday night's schedule so that Councilman Como can arrive on-time for the debate. We will be there between 8 and 8:30pm. Thank you for your consideration and assistance.”
The last e-mail received by the Como campaign, at 3:25pm the day of the debate:
“Just to confirm format, each candidate will have the opportunity to ask a question of the other candidate. candidates will have 2 minutes to respond and a 3 minute rebuttle(sic). Will there be opening statements?”
The failure of Marge and Anthony to attend gave Tony and Elizabeth more time to state their positions and answer questions posed to them from the audience.
The Juniper Park Civic Association asks you to keep these snubs in mind as you enter the voting booth on November 4th.
