Mayoral candidates face off in debate

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - In a live televised debate Tom Henry, Paula Hughes, and Haley Ahrendt went head to head to head Tuesday night. They answered questions about their plans for the city, their thoughts on past decisions, and even on the negative campaign ads.

One thing stood out from the very beginning Tom Henry obviously steered clear from one of his opponents. In all three opportunities to ask follow-up questions the mayor asked Ahrendt questions, not Hughes.

“The reason I asked Haley a number of questions was because he's been pretty quiet throughout the campaign,” explained Henry after the debate. “I had heard a lot from Paula in a number of different venues, but not heard much from Haley and I wanted to know how he felt about certain issues.”

Hughes saw it differently. “I think Mayor Henry knows who the front runner is in this campaign and he didn't want to give her any more air time.”

Ahrendt told NewsChannel 15 he didn’t feel like he was a sounding board or that he was singled out. He did take the chance to criticize Henry and Hughes for their negative campaign ads.

One of the more tense moments of the night came after a question about whether each candidate would purchase the North River property to make it part of the city if given the change. Henry was the only one who said he would. Hughes fired right back.

“Mayor Henry do you think that your plans to buy the North river property account for the Rifkin family's contribution to your campaign?” she asked him.

Henry said he was ready for tough personal questions from Hughes. “It's a very aggressive sometimes contentious campaign. I realize that desperate people do desperate things,” he said.

Neither Henry nor Hughes would give a straight answer when they were asked if they had stretched of distorted their opponents statistics, but both did back up their own campaign decisions.

The candidates have a week to go until Election Day and Hughes said the debate won’t change her plans.

“We have a round of get out the vote efforts coming up this weekend,” she said. “It’s going to be lots more of the same, talking to people, talking about my plans for the future of the city and asking people to support me on November 8th.”

Tuesday’s debate was held at the Auer Auditorium at the Rhinehart Music Center on IPFW’s campus. WANE-TV partnered with The Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics to host the event.