Going 15 Rounds in the Sound

In This Corner
I was just wondering when the wind farm in Nantucket Sound was going to be making an apprearance in this year's elections. It's tough to see how when almost everyone running has a variation of the same position on the issue.

With the exception of Rep. Matt Patrick (D), of Falmouth, who supports the project, but is waiting to see the results of the environmental review, all the other candidates for state or federal office, are opposed to the project, but are waiting to see the environmental report.

Patrick's opponent for the House seat from the Falmouth-Mashpee-Barnstable district, Larry Wheatley (R), Barnstable ran mainly as an opponent of Cape Wind two year's ago, with the overwhelming backing of the Cape Cod Times, to the degree that voters could not decifer his position on any other issue. Wheatley could hardly do otherwise, since the district includes the village of Osterville, Ground Zero for the opposition forces. Wheatley could not stray far from this base, without other hamlets of support in the district, like Falmouth.

This time around both candidate's have moderated their positions somewhat, or at least turned down the volumn. And the Times has stopped reminding everyone that Wheatley is opposed to the project, since it tends to bring out voters who might vote against Wheatley for his opposition to the project. Got that?

The House race in the Barnstable-Yarmouth district, which includes the Hyannis and West Yarmouth waterfront precincts, pits two candidates, Rep. Demetrius Atsalis (D), and Ann Canedy (R), both opposed to the wind farm, against each other, again in another rerun. They've stopped trying to outdo each other in their opposition to the wind farm, this time around. Given the similarity of their positions, neither is bringing up the subject this year.

In the Yarmouth-Dennis-Brewster district race, Dick Nietz (R) of Yarmouth has taken the offensive on the field of opposition to the wind farm, while Cleon Turner (D) of Dennis has taken to defending his opposition to the wind farm. Both postions are nuanced; Neitz's hometown stands to gain significantly from Cape Wind's construction, while Turner's proclivity for taking positions on the left, has many of his supporters supporting the wind farm as well.

Footnotes: The incumbent, Tom George (R) of Yarmouth, not running for re-election, interestingly supports the project. George is still the most principled man in Cape politics. Cynthia Stead (R) who was defeated in the Primary by Neitz, was the only other candidate in the field for a state house office supporting the wind farm.

The Lower Cape district features Rep. Shirley Gomes (R) of Harwich running for relection, and Sarah Peake (D) of Provincetown. Both women have staked out positions against the project, having more to do with their strategy to get (re)elected, than their principles. Gomes would like to nail down (win) the town of Chatham, whose voters largely oppose the project, while Peake wants to placate the true environmentalists in the district (read Democrats who need a reason to vote for a Democrat again). Peake doesn't need to complicate the election with the wind farm issue, since the it's a referendum on gay marriage anyway.

The Lightweights
In the race for State Senate from the Cape & Islands district, political newcomer, Gail Lese (R) from Yarmouth opposes the project. It seems she's taking her marching orders from Governor Romney, who recruited her specifically to move into the distrct and run for this seat as part of the Romney GOP charge to take back (part of ) the Senate. While incumbent Sen. Rob O'Leary (D) Barnstable, came out early in opposition (2 years before Gail Lese had even moved into the district) to the wind farm at the behest Congressman Bill Delahunt. Recently, both candidates were the beneficiaries of fundrasing efforts on their behalves by their political patrons. Don't expect a lot of debate on this topic during the campaign, Romney and Delahunt are on the same page on this one.

Footnote: Lou Gonzaga (I) of Hyannis is opposed to the wind farm, even though the only politcal hay to be made in his race, (read votes) would be to stake out a position contrary to his opponents.

The Referee
Most candidates realize that their positions now cut both ways. Cape Codders seem to be evenly split on the issue. Despite the Cape Cod Times best (worst) effort to slant the results of a poll to make it appear that a majority of residents opposed the project, the polling data reveiled that about 2/5 of us support the wind farm , about 2/5 oppose the wind farm, and the remaining 1/5 of us could go either way. So however the candidates pose their position, they will try to bury it somewhere beneath their postions on issues like, school funding/aid formulas, and gay marriage.

The Heavyweights
The most interesting race this year seems to be in the 10th Congressional District because of the geography of the region, which includes both Osterville and Quincy. The most vociferous opponent of the wind farm has been Congressman Bill Delahunt(D) of Quincy. In responding to the early calls from the Cape based opponents, like the Chamber of Commerce, he has gone so far as to file legislation to stop the project, lobby federal agencies against it, and recruit opponents to fight it.

What is curious about these actions is that there has been no mention of them in the Quincy Pariot Ledger. Quincy is where the Fore River Shipyard is located, the most ideal location for the manufacture(r) of the wind turines (GE). Delahunt opted to preserve the view of the Osterville crowd, some of whom are Pioneers (fundraisers) for Bush, at the expense of union jobs for the folks back home.

His challenger, Mike Jones (R) of Plymouth seems to be taking the same tack, but for a slightly more ethical reason. He doesn't care about Quincy, which he can't win anyway, because it's overwhelmingly Democtratic, but he needs the Governor's support, who opposes the wind farm, in the rest of the district to win.

Blonde Ambition

The Sin of Ommission
Candidate for State Senate from the Cape & Islands district, Gail Lese is fond of telling people that she was a finalist for a White House Fellowship in 2003, six months before she moved to the Cape and began her campaign for the Legislature.
Interesting then, that she would neglect to mention that she was also a finalist for the same honour in 1998.The difference being that the 2003 application was serving George W. Bush, quite nice if you're a Repubican running for political office. The 1998 application however was under William J. Clinton, not so circumspect if you are a (R).
Not to worry though, Ms. Lese was a registered Democrat in 1998, according to her campaign manager, a fact also conveniently omitted from her curriculum vitea. At the time she applied for the Clinton White House Fellowship, sometime between the being a pediatrician and a mutual fund manager, she was a filmmaker living in Cambridge, according to a White House press release.
Ms. Lese could be forgiven her mistake as a first time candidate, if it weren't for the fact that she has a Republican campaign consutant on retainer for $8,000 a month, so if not guilty of the sin of ommission, then chalk it up simply to Blonde Ambition.

Editorial Note: At post time, Lou Gonzaga, Independent candidate for the same Senate seat, had yet to apply for a White House Fellowship.

Blind Ambition

In a recent MassNews.com item featuring Lou Gonzaga, the story states in part that he has never been elected to political office and knows that unseating a popular Democrat will be a tough task. That's why he announced his run 16 months before the election and began running immediately. He told a reporter at the time that getting a head start was "the only way I'm going to win this race."

Political Anagram:
Timothy Duncan, resident of Cambridge,and candidate for State Senate from Falmouth, is an anagram for "Thy Nomadic Nut".

Political Daffi-nitions:
CARPETBAGGER, During the Reconstruction period (2002- present) following the election of Governor Mitt Romney, any Northern Shore politician or financial adventurer accused of going South to use the newly enfranchised freedmen (Unenrolled) as a means of obtaining office or profit. The epithet originally referred to an unwelcome stranger coming, with no more property than he could carry in a satchel (carpetbag), to exploit or dominate a region, such as Cape Cod, against the wishes of some or all of its inhabitants. Although carpetbaggers often supported the corrupt financial schemes that helped to bring the Republican Party into ill repute, many of them were genuinely concerned with the freedom and education of Cape Cod citizens.

Red added by Blogger
________________________________
Spyro Mitrokostas is the former Executive Director of the Cape Cod Technology Council and has held the same position at the Cape Cod Internet Council. He has been a politically active going back to the early Dukakis and Kerry campaigns and he is presently a candidate from Yarmouth for the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates. He is a lifelong resident of Cape Cod and a graduate of the London School of Economics.

Where to Vote: For a list of all of Cape Cod's polling places click here.

To See Previous Blog, Click HERE.

Apathy for the Assembly - Thumbs Down

Charlotte Striebel of Yarmouth, who is running for re-election to the Assembly of Delegates against Spyro Mitrokostas, recently told us that in her six years on the Assembly, not one voter has called her about a county issue.
Now we realize that the Assembly directly serves the Cape's 15 towns and indirectly its 230,000 residents, but one would think that Yarmouth voters might have something to say about county government.
Although anecdotal, does this tell us anything about the health of democracy on Cape Cod?

Cheers & Jeers

Treasures that washed ashore recently,

flotsom we hope the next tide carries away.

Cape Cod Times (9/24/04)

Patriot of Barnstable

Trenchant and often trench-coated political correspondent Jack Coleman has left the Cape Cod Times for the virtual reality of blogging on the Cape Cod TODAY Web site. Coleman, who wrote the “Political Notes” column for the daily and covered the Democratic (but not the Republican) convention for the Times, has joined forces with former Cape Cod Technology Council executive director Spyro Mitrokostas.

Mitrokostas is running for Yarmouth’s seat on the county Assembly of Delegates, and Coleman has announce that he’s working as a volunteer in Demetrius Atsalis’s re-election campaign. Will Cape Cod Today offer a blog to Yarmouth’s incumbent delegate, Charlotte Striebel, and Atsalis’s opponent, Ann Canedy?

Coleman is following a well-worn path from the Times newsroom to the Atsalis boiler room. The representative’s chief of staff, Michael Karath, used to report for the daily.

Those who’ve followed the wind farm controversy will enjoy another of Coleman’s contributions to the Web site: “Two Wrights Make a Wrong,” the satiric story of how rich beachfront property owners opposed the Wright brothers’ experimental flights in 1904 through the Alliance to Protect Kitty Hawk. In this alternate reality, the Kitty Hawk Times opposes this “private takeover of public skies” even though this marks “a sharp departure from the paper’s previous support for many technological advances of the era, such as the light bulb, moving pictures and indoor plumbing.” Chalk it up to Times editor Charles Ulmer Farley, “who refuses to dispatch any of his reporters to scheduled flights of the Wrights’ aeroplane, even though two local weekly newspapers have done so.”

Political Potpourri (9/24/04) See original here.

See Jack's cautionary tale here.

Candidate is stealing credit due legislators

I do not understand the Times' reluctance to give credit where credit is due regarding the Hyannis Youth and Community Center.

No matter who lobbies the governor, all appropriations start in the Legislature. Rep. Demetrius Atsalis starts the ball rolling in the House with the $3.5 million request, hands off to Ways and Means Chairwoman Therese Murray in the Senate, and now candidate Gail Lese gets credit for saving the appropriation from a Mitt Romney veto?

Spyro Mitrokostas, West Yarmouth

Letter to the Editor (9/24/04)

Cape Cod Times

What the Legislature Giveth,

The Governor Can Taketh Away, or he can try at least.
The Romney Administration has denied election year politics had anything to do with the Governor's decision to veto a number of popular projects in districts where he was targeting Democratic incumbents.

Besides the recent broohaha over the Hyannis Youth and Receation Center's $3.5 million appropriation, (which the Governor eventually signed), controvery surrounded several other projects involving Cape projects. Three in particular were sponsored by Rep. Demetrius Atsalis (D) of Hyannis, running for reelection in the 2nd Barnstable Dictrict, against a Romney endorsed opponent.

Funding for the projects, originally passed in the State Budget, were vetoed by Governor Romney, only to be overridden (and reinstated) later by the legislature.

The projects in question included the Cape Cod Chamber's, EntreCenter, The Cape Cod Technology Council's, Technology Education and Training Collaborative, and Yarmouth's Cape Cod Cultural Center.

AWNAA Passes

September 12, 2005, WASHINGTON, DC (AP)
Congress approved sweeping legislation, which provides new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA), signed into law by President John F. Kerry shortly after its passage, is being hailed as a major victory by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.

"Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said Kerry, a long-time AWNA supporter. "This is why many of them voted for me. We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they do a better job, or have some idea of what they are doing", said Kerry.

President Kerry pointed to the success of the US Postal Service and Medicare, both of which have a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 80 percent of the employees of these two important organizations lack job skills, making these two agencies the single largest US employers of Persons of Inability. Private sector industries with good records of nondiscrimination Against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and the home improvement "warehouse" stores (65%). President Kerry has also set an example, personally selecting hundreds of Non-abled people for top level government positions, including many Cabinet level jobs.

Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 10 million "middleman" positions will be created, with important sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance. Mandatory non-performance based raises and promotions will be given, to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees.
The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations which maintain a significant level of Persons of Inability in top positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.

Finally, the AWNAA contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Non-abled, banning discriminatory interview questions such as "do you have any goals for the future?" or "Do you have any skills or experience which relates to this job?" and "how can you make this company successful?".

"As a Non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them," said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a Lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, MI due to her lack of notable job skills. "This new law should really help people like me. "With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented and/or unmotivated citizens can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Said Kerry, "It is our duty to provide each and every American Citizen, regardless of his or her adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation."

Contributed by a Private Sector Employee

with apologies to the truly Disabled