What to Watch for

As you may have heard, the four candidates for mayor hit the stage, the TV lights and the radio airwaves this Thursday night for a mayoral forum. You can watch on FATV, listen on AM 1280 "The Blend," and get as-it-happens analysis on fitchburgpride.com.

Now, what's going to happen Thursday night? Can someone get an upper hand 12 days from the preliminary election? Who knows, but here's what should happen. The following is based on what I've seen and heard both from the voters and from the candidates in recent weeks.

For Ted DeSalvatore, he needs to prove to be a steady hand at the wheel. He'll bring the passion and the fire to Thursday night. He might put on the best performance of the night, if he's firing on all cylanders. He's just well-managed enough to have decent answers on some things, but maintaining his trademark energy. He also needs to make sure what he's saying is verifiable. In a meeting last week, he said Unitil is lobbying state officials. State records show no signs of Unitil having a lobbyist or making campaign contributions in the last few years. He needs to show he has a good sense of the city's finances, and how to improve them. He'll win the crowd with his talk of sweeping out problems, but he needs to keep them in the long term by showing some savvy and knowledge.

For Tom Donnelly, it's time to show a little thought and vision for the city's future. He threw a clunker at Mrs. Save Fitchburg a few weeks ago regarding schools (see past post), and didn't smoothly handle a few questions with Pride editors and reporters last week. He's relying on, well, being the guy who's been here longest. He needs to be able to talk about the future, though. He has a great organization and name recognition that might make this debate merely a walk-through, but he needs to get a little forward-looking and bit more specific based on what's been heard so far.

For Ron Dionne, he needs to prove he can hang with the big boys. Remember Grace Ross? Everyone thought she was a loon last year, but she proved to be probably as top of the issues -- and maybe more right -- than the rest of the gubernatorial candidates. Can Dionne do the same? He has an uphill challenge here, considering three months ago he admitted he hadn't read the city budget. But maybe he's done his homework.

For Lisa Wong, she has to prove that she can offer more than classroom application of business theories. She needs to prove she can lead, and she needs to prove she can get people in City Hall to buy into what she's selling. She has the best pure business background, and some wins downtown to hang her hat on, but she can't be the professor lecturing Thursday night.

So, there you go. A little insight into Thursday's fun and games. Don't forget, first pitch at 7 p.m.