Deena Winter: Who won?

“So who won?” I asked a prominent Lincoln lawyer who often represents developers as he was leaving the Holiday Inn on Tuesday.

That is, who won the forum for mayoral candidates sponsored by the Lincoln Independent Business Association?

“Lincoln wins,” he said. In other words, no matter which candidate wins the spring election, it’ll be an improvement.

Other LIBA members who watched the three candidates said much the same: All three candidates are singing a strikingly similar song.

In fact, it was the Democrat, Chris Beutler, who stressed that he wouldn’t raise the city’s property tax rate and would make long-term cuts to avoid annual budget shortfalls.

Beutler drove that message home even more than Republican Ken Svoboda or independent Roger Yant.

But it seems they’re all playing what they think is Lincoln’s tune, and it goes something like this: “I’ll bring jobs, leadership, accountability, vision and a more business-friendly atmosphere to Lincoln.”

The people I talked to agreed Svoboda was the best public speaker. He seems to be a natural behind the microphone — which is somewhat surprising considering how quiet he is at City Council meetings. But get him in front of an audience of 200, as he was Tuesday, and he seems at ease.

However, it’s one thing to have a good radio voice. It’s quite another to offer specifics. Just saying you’ll restore trust in city government isn’t enough. How are you going to do that, exactly? Much easier said than done.

Beutler, a 24-year veteran of the Legislature, knows his stuff but is not nearly as relaxed as Svoboda. He tends to talk at length but doesn’t always tackle the question head on.

A word of wisdom: We know you candidates like to “stay on message,” but we’d also like you to answer the question. We notice when you don’t.

Yant admits he’s not comfortable getting up in front of a room and talking about himself. But he held his own with the two veteran politicians. He stumbled here and there and lost his train of thought when a Journal Star photographer got in his face.

He has a pretty good grasp of issues — though he did make the blunder of saying he thought the proposed Wal-Mart at 84th and Adams should have been closer to the Lancaster Event Center. (The ultimately doomed Wal-Mart couldn’t have gotten much closer.)

And he seems naïve when he says he’d start firing city employees left and right if they didn’t get on board with his philosophy. (As one city employee once told me, it practically takes an act of Congress to fire a city employee.)

Tuesday’s LIBA forum was only the second time the three candidates faced voters, and they have plenty of time to work on their delivery before the April primary. That’s when the field of three will narrow to two — assuming nobody else jumps into the race.