Rahm Emanuel, Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia face off in first one-on-one mayoral debate tonight

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, will face off in the first of three televised debates tonight ahead of the April 7 runoff.

The 6 p.m. program will last 60 minutes and is hosted by NBC 5 Chicago, Telemundo Chicago, the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and the Harris School of Public Policy. It will be moderated by Carol Marin.

For Garcia, the televised debate will be his first TV opportunity to counter political attack ads launched by Emanuel that depict the Cook County Commissioner as ill-prepared to take on responsibilities of the job.

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“Chuy has to show that he is a mayoral quality, that he’s qualified as mayor to counter all of the efforts that Rahm has made with his TV to take him down and disqualify him,” said Don Rose, a Garcia consultant and head of the debate prep team. “It’s a matter of his demeanor and his actions … to show a much different person than the person who Rahm is trying to define. Rahm has had close to two weeks of negatives trying to take him down by in effect saying, he’s an old fashioned politician, he’s not capable of running the city. I think Chuy is quite capable and I think people will see that tonight.”

Both candidates are coming off a mixed bag of news from the weekend.

While Garcia received the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union’s State Council, Ogden & Fry’s weekly mayoral poll showed Emanuel’s lead has widened.