He’s known for his mercurial temper and combative, get-it-done attitude. But today mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel may be showing a softer side as he fields questions from high school students at a forum to be aired on public television.
Emanuel will appear in a forum on WTTW11 with fellow candidates Carol Moseley Braun, Miguel del Valle and Gery Chico to take questions on education from a group of Chicago students.
The students questioning the candidates are from the Mikva Challenge, a non-partisan group that helps low-income Chicago youth get involved in politics and community service.
This is not the first forum to pit the four top candidates against one another, but it is the first to be televised. Last week, Moseley-Braun, Del Valle, Chico and Emanuel sat down in front of the Chicago Tribune editorial board to discuss the campaign.
The event quickly turned into an assault on Emanuel as the other candidates questioned him about his temperment and record.
Today's Chicago Tonight Election Special, hosted by NBC-5’s Carol Marin and Phil Ponce will air at 7 p.m., and likely won't be as testy as last weeks.
With just five weeks to go before Chicago elects its next mayor, the debate is heating up.
At their last go-around, with the Chicago Tribune editorial board on Jan. 14, Emanuel was criticized by other candidates for his reputation as a political brute. All three agreed that Emanuel’s frontrunner status makes him a legitimate target.
