Campaign members step in for candidates in surrogate debate

By Kaya Ginsky

Tensions ran high as the surrogates (the candidates’ chosen PR reps, campaign managers, or opposition researchers) prepared to debate on their candidates’ behalfs. They brought up their computers and recieved live advice from their respective candidates. Mia Friedman, the Daily Derenberger’s editor and webmaster, moderated the debate; and the Daily Derenberger staff contributed to the debate questions.

DAY 1

The rifts between the campaigns were visible from the start of the debate. While most surrogates simply introduced themselves, Republican frontrunner Gideon Helf’s surrogate Gabe Schaner expressed their mission of “putting the public back in Republican” and Republican Logan Glazier’s surrogate Greg Garner displayed their platform of “contemporary conservatism.”

Friedman’s first debate question was: “What is the biggest issue your candidate will address?” Three of the six surrogates reported that their main focus was the environment and global warming, including Republican Mizuki Brent’s surrogate Caroline Lui, Democrat Alli Hammoud’s surrogate Harrison Starr, and Democrat Grace Cabral’s surrogate, Leila Garner. The Brent campaign, which is endorsed by environmental interest group, The Sierra Club, mainly focused on creating jobs and new technology in the renewable energy industry. Democrats Hammoud and Cabral focused on a full transition to renewable energy with a 35% corporation tax and funding environmental programs through higher corporation taxes, respectively.

Democrat Bennett Solomon’s surrogate Tess Cohen Dumani expressed that his main focus was education reform, with a stress on educational inequity and mental health resources. When asked how Solomon would pay for it, she was quick to say “make education a priority in our budget.”

Schaner, true to his party, stated that the biggest issue for the Helf campaign is tax reform, and said that he would reform the tax system by reinstating a flat rate tax and reducing all taxes by 10%, which the Glazier campaign was quick to refute as “unrealistic.” However, when discussing international relations and environmental agreements, Schaner expressed aims to promote biodiversity, prevent extinction, and rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, straying from typical Republican views.

A question on recent school bus accidents in the community and federal interference in local safety laws led to a heated debate. The Solomon campaign capitalized on this question to discuss their plans for school staff training. However, FEC Chairman Ryan Derenberger closed the question when Cohen Dumani asked Greg Garner “if it’s not about training, is it the kids fault for walking in front of the bus?” and the conversation began to stall.

Day 2

Day 2 of the debates created new candidate feuds and strengthened existing rivalries. As the debate continued, discussion seemed to stray more from the questions and many surrogates transitioned to aggressive tactics. Debate questions also became more specific to policy goals and targeted individual candidates.

The first topic was whether marijuana should be legalized and if its regulation should be carried out on the federal level. Liu, true to the Brent campaign’s focus on social justice, saw the ban of marijauna as a contributor to unfair incarceration of minorities, and hoped for regulation and limited legalization by the federal government, as did the Solomon campaign.

Friedman quickly began to target specific candidates, asking the Republican candidates how they will achieve environmental regulation without overregulating business. Each Republican surrogate agreed that corporations are “beneficial” to the country, but as Liu said: “should hold companies that create a large percent of pollution accountable.” Glazier’s campaign proposed incentivizing green energy use through form of tax cuts to keep jobs in the country.

The surrogates expressed roughly the same views on gun control. The liberal Republican Brent campaign focused on background checks and combating mental health issues that contribute to gun violence. Solomon’s campaign, further stressing their care for education, proposed school safety drills, a limit for numbers of weapon sales, and background checks.

As the conversation lulled, Liu began to attack fellow Republican candidate Gideon Helf’s team for Helf’s Illuminati membership, and asked Schaner what else Helf was hiding. Schaner defended his candidate, stating that “ The Illuminati is actually striving for political change, not fighting for secret control, people have negative stigmatism for this.” When Liu said that Helf didn’t share his membership until the Daily Derenberger released an exposé, Schaner simply promised to be honest in the future.

When Friedman asked the surrogate who they viewed as the biggest enemy to their campaign, Starr began to attack Republican candidates; and explained that Hammoud’s enemy is “greedy big business and corporations and everyone that supports them, including Helf and Glazier.” Glazier’s campaign then went on the offensive, stating that Hammoud’s plan for taxing the wealthy won’t allow for better programs. Garner then further promoted the use of government buying power to “streamline the bureaucracy so we don’t waste money and lower drug and weapons prices.”

A debate on education revealed stark contrasts between candidates’ beliefs and plans. Brent believes in devolving education power back to the states, whereas Hammoud believes in federal standardized education to stop state corruption. Glazier’s campaign is clearly against standardized education, as Greg Garner called Hammoud’s plan a “cookie cutter” attack on education.

Other surrogates took on the candidates directly rather than the candidates’ views. Glazier’s Republican competitors pointed out his defeat in the polls, and when Greg Garner said “we have confidence,” Schaner fired back with “winning the presidency matters more than confidence.” The Glazier campaign later told the crowd that the only reason Helf was winning was his vague policies.

When a conversation on prison form turned to a conversation of young voter support, Liu called out Solomon’s instagram video that “attacks millenials and tiktok girls.” Cohen Dumani was quick to defend the “mocking video” as an effort to reach out to the younger teens.

When asked about the Hammoud campaign’s alleged hacking, Starr began an unprecedented attack on the Daily Derenberger, saying “we don’t respond to fake news.” After the outrage of his fellow surrogates, Starr corrected himself and explained that Hammoud was playing a game on Hackertype.com when the Daily Derenberger caught him.