Chet Gives Another Strong Performance

Culver and Nussle appeared for their second debate last night. Sponsored by the Iowa Black and Brown Forum, the debate centered on minority issues, including the recent claims of racial discrimination in state hiring practices, immigration, and the official state language. Unfortunately, I missed the debate, but it looks like it was a zinger.

Nussle seems to have spent some time criticizing Vilsack for his culpability in the hiring scandal.

“It’s like you woke up one day and magically discovered it was happening,” said Nussle, a congressman from northeastern Iowa, on Vilsack’s reaction to the scandal. The Republican candidate also argued that Vilsack’s administration was not open enough to criticism of the agencies, forcing whistleblowers to instead go to the press.

Maybe someone should let him know that Vilsack isn’t running again. Although, to be fair, Culver frequent states that he will continue in Vilsack’s footsteps, as evidenced by Culver taking a stand for Vilsack in the debate. At the same time Culver suggested that he would go beyond the measures Vilsack has proposed.

Culver added: “We will have an across-the-board effort on diversity training in terms of hiring practices and making sure the state government is inclusive. I think actions speak louder than words.”

General opinion seems to be that Culver did well. Gordon over at Iowa True Blue calls it a decisive win for Culver, saying “He looked strong, confident, and sure.”

Keep it up, Chet.

2 comments October 13th, 2006