Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse’s four mayoral candidates engaged in a wide-ranging — and at times emotional — debate that featured questions from residents who came to Syracuse University’s National Veterans Resource Center for a town hall-style forum.
The 90-minute debate, held by SU’s CitrusTV student television studio, drew a crowd of about 150 people, with another 300 watching online. All four candidates — Democrat Sharon Owens, Republican Thomas Babilon and independents Alfonso Davis and Tim Rudd — earned applause from the audience, with some occasional jeers as well. They answered audience and online viewer questions on topics that included getting college students involved in city life, food insecurity, the school superintendent search, police handling of mental health-related calls, dealing with slumlords and working with the Trump administration.
For many of the questions, the candidates aligned in one of two ways. The more liberal Owens, Davis and Rudd had some sharp disagreements with Babilon. At other times, Babilon, Davis and Rudd chastised Owens, the city’s deputy mayor since 2018, for what they described as failings of incumbent Mayor Ben Walsh’s two terms in office…