On Tuesday, October 29, beginning at 7:00 pm, they will have that opportunity. WXYZ-TV/Channel 7, in partnership with the Michigan Chronicle, News/Talk 760 WJR, Crain’s Detroit Business, the Booker T. Washington Business Association and the Detroit Black Chamber, is proud to host the final Detroit Mayoral Debate where Napoleon and Duggan will face off before a studio audience of about 50 people at Channel 7 Broadcast House and 325 Detroit residents participating in the event from the General Motors auditorium inside Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
Respected journalists Bankole Thompson, Carolyn Clifford, Glenda Lewis, Stephen Clark, Mary Kramer, and Lloyd Jackson will also join me in this “live” forum that will be broadcast on television and radio, and streamed on the internet.
My experience is that nothing captures the excitement like a final debate just one week before voters go to the polls to cast their ballots. I saw it 1993 when Channel 7 hosted the final debate between attorneys Dennis Archer and Sharon McPhail.
I saw it again in October 2001 when State Representative Kwame Kilpatrick and Detroit City Council President Gil Hill went toe-to-toe in our studios. And the final debates between Kilpatrick and former Detroit Deputy Mayor Freman Hendrix in 2005, and Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel, Jr. and businessman Dave Bing in 2009 are extremely memorable. All of them gave viewers and voters an opportunity to size up the candidates one last time.
On Tuesday, November 5, the political future of Detroit is at stake like never before. Not only will city residents get to choose their highest elected official but for the first time in nearly 100 years, city council members will be elected from defined neighborhood districts. With so much on the line, the world will be watching who we choose to lead us into the future.
It’s time to debate and vote. We hope you tune in for THE DEBATE on Tuesday, October 29.
Chuck Stokes is editorial director of WXYZ.
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