I spent last evening looking at screens. I saw two baseball games – the Dodgers beating the Brewers and leading 3-0 in the best of seven series to advance to the World Series (I’d rather the Brewers win, but that has always been unlikely) and the Blue Jays tying their series at 2 with the Mariners behind the pitching of ex-Nat and ex-a lot of things, 41 year old St. Louis native Max Scherzer. I am still torn on that one. My heart is with Toronto, but since the Mariners are the only Major League team not to ever have been in the World Series, I think they probably deserve it.

But in addition to the two games, I watched two debates from start to finish. First, the one hour debate between the candidates for Attorney General of Virginia, Democrat Jay Jones, and Republican (and incumbent) Jason Miyares. The debate was shown live on C-Span, and was sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association. I hadn’t paid much attention to this contest. My assumption was that Democrat Abigail Spanberger was going to be the next governor and that the Democratic candidates for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, whoever they might be, would also win. After all, purple Virginia has been hit so hard by the attacks on federal employees by the Trump administration that I did not (and do not) think that the Republican candidate for governor stands a chance.

But then last week, one of those things that can happen in politics happened. It turned out that Democrat Jones had, only two or three years ago, sent out some private text messages saying that he would like to see several bullets hit the head of the Republican Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, and see his children killed. Now, I don’t think he was actually expecting anyone to follow up on his suggestion, but the language was so offensive that the context became unimportant. All of a sudden, his qualifications for the job become up for question, but it was too late to replace him or remove him from the ballot. Spanberger has not stuck by him with much vigor, and his opponent, Miyares, has come out with a very clever ad, targeted to people who were going to vote for Spanberger, basically saying “you may want to vote for Spanberger, but you can’t really vote for Jay Jones, can you”?

I don’t know anything about Miyares present term performance as Attorney General under a Republican governor in a state where both legislative houses are controlled by Democrats. I assume that I would disagree with him on many points. But I must say that he is a smooth talker, quite impressive on the debate stage, and that he didn’t say anything that I found outlandish or offensive. That’s unusual for a Republican these days. On the other hand, while I didn’t find anything Jay said offensive, and while he is a good speaker as well, I didn’t find him particularly inspiring. He wanted to talk more about Trump than about Virginia, and to mark his opponent as someone afraid to stand up to Trump. That all may be true, but he really didn’t sound like an Attorney General, and Miyares did.

Now, I am not a Virginia voter, so I don’t have to make a real choice. But my reaction was that Miyares would probably be a more effective, more professional AG, but of course, I would vote for Jones (in spite of his horrible texts and less than professional mien) because it is so crucial to keep Republicans out of any office possible.

The debate had one moderator, who seemed as fair as fair can be, the candidates had plenty of time to answer the questions, and they were respectful of the rules of the debate, kept within the time limits and, without diminishing their words, seemed quite respectful of each other.

The New York mayoral debate, between Democrat Zohran Mamdani, Independent (ha, ha, ha) Andrew Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Sliwa began just as the Virginia debate ended. It was not broadcast live on national TV, but I found I could watch it on the website of Channel 4 in New York, WNBC. It was a 2 hour debate, sponsored by a number of organizations, and had four moderators asking questions. Compared to the Virginia debate, the New York debate was absolute chaos. Why? First, because the three candidates were New Yorkers, not Virginians, and were used to interrupting people, rather than politely listening to them. In addition, four moderators were too many, it was unclear who was in charge, and they stumbled over each other from time to time. Finally, the timing made no sense (“I have the following question for you; you will have 30 seconds to answer.”), and the questions often seemed irrelevant: “Do you ever take public transportation?” “If you were in a bodega, what would you order for breakfast?”

One more thing fascinated me. The questions, about rent levels, and free buses, and noise levels, and trash collection, and more were all questions that only rise to this level in New York City, such a unique place. Someone listening to this debate, living elsewhere in the country, and never having visited New York City, would have thought that these people were running for mayor of a city at least on another planet, and maybe in another universe. None of the questions given to the New York candidates would have received anything but blank stares if asked of candidates in Virginia.

My overall response to the New York debate was: I pity New York City. None of these three seem capable of the job. Cuomo I have disliked since he was HUD Secretary, and he made several mistakes as New York’s governor. This is undoubtedly why he lost the primary to Mamdani. He looked old and haggard tonight, I thought, and not particularly impressive. He also never called Mamdani by name; he referred to him over and over as “the Assemblyman”. This is undoubtedly because he was afraid he was going to mispronounce Mamdani.

Sliwa, who was been notorious and controversial since his early days as the leader of the Guardian Angels decades ago, comes across as a serious man, and a fighter. I enjoy watching him, and he is clearly a Republican who would not be afraid to speak against something that Donald Trump might come up with. If he were a Democrat, I might vote for him, although he and I would disagree on a large number of things. We would also agree on much, it appeared. This surprised me. He could certainly hold his own in the debate.

And that leaves Mamdani. Zohran Mamdani (by the way, Sliwa kept leaving out the “r”, calling him Zohan) is just 33 years old. Can you name any big city mayor who was elected in any big city at 33 within the last, say, 100 years? The answer is, whether or not you think you can, you can’t (well, okay, Mayor Pete). He is just too young, his thinking still too immature, for this kind of a job. I expect he will win the election. He is way ahead in the polling, and certainly neither of his opponents did anything last night that looked to close the gap. But some of his proposals are visionary and not practical, his position on Israel is a bit frightening, his relationship with the Democratic Socialists is problematic, and he would face problems, I am afraid, well above his pay grade. And who knows what Trump’s reaction will be? Poor New York.

In the meantime, here in DC, Mayor Bowser is contemplating running for a fourth term, and several members of the City Council are considering a primary run against her (this is for 2026). As of today, I would vote for Bowser for the fourth term – I think she has done very well as our leader. On the other hand, if Eleanor Holmes Norton runs for reelection as our non-member of Congress at age 88, I won’t vote for her, Yale Law graduate or not. She has been too old and ineffective for too many years already; I have not voted for her in the last several elections, even though she has been the only candidate. Time, overtime, for someone new.