It’s very simple, really. I couldn’t sleep, because something happened last night at the District 3 candidates’ forum at Trinity Valley School that was remarkable—and troublesome. “And just what was that?” you ask. The six candidates all began to sound the same at this forum, the umpteenth since the City Council race officially began on March 9, 2009, seven weeks and two days ago. Why? What happened?
To understand this phenomenon you have to know something in particular. I know that something, because for the last two years I have been attending gas drilling task force meetings when possible, getting reports from those meetings I missed, and attending all City Council meetings where critical gas drilling and production issues were being considered. I know who, among the candidates, were at those meetings and who weren’t. Only one of the six candidates thought it was important to be there during those last two years. (I may as well tell you that Mr. Nuttall, the landman candidate, seems to have dropped out of the race or has decided he can win without showing up for candidate forums.)
Over the course of the campaign each candidate has become more and more eloquent on those subjects he/she has the least hands-on experience with. They also have gauged the depth of public interest in each of the areas of city administration that have been on the obligatory list of topics for discussion and debate.
To hear them discuss the gas industry issues you would think they all knew what they were talking about, and they all agreed with Gary Hogan, the only candidate who really cares about and knows the true importance of this issue. Mike Lee from the Startlegram (which becomes more aligned with the gas industry with each passing day) was at the forum and was very busy scribbling away. It will be interesting to see what his editor allows him to say about this forum today. I’ll report back on that later.
When asked what they thought about the use of eminent domain to take right of way from residence property for (gas gathering) pipelines, they were all properly horrified, though some decided to spend a lot of their time talking about circumstances under which they thought eminent domain action would be proper and only gave the actual question a curt short answer—No way.
One of the candidates twice thought that an issue in question was a “two way sword” (mixed metaphor—two way street and two edged sword), and regarding eminent domain he discussed the “New Hampshire” case (close, but no cigar. It was Kelo v. New London, CT). Another Johnny-come-lately candidate asked rhetorically if the audience knew that when one of these pipelines explodes the effective kill radius is 3500 feet. And then this candidate said rather blandly, “These things have no place in residential zoned areas.” None of the other candidates expressed any surprise whatever when the 3500 foot devastation radius was alleged. Of course, I knew, and Gary Hogan knew, that no one on the Council knows what the actual average kill radius is (or cares, for that matter--and 3500 feet has never been mentioned in the available literature).
At the end of the prepared list of questions for the candidates, the moderator asked if any audience members had a question, and I raised my hand and was chosen! The final question that I posed was as follows:
“Gee, you all sound really good tonight. The trouble is, you all sound alike. My question to you is, ‘What makes you the clear choice for this office?’”
The same candidate who dropped the 3500 foot figure gave Hogan a backhanded slap in answering this by stating that one of his/her strongest qualifications is that he/she is not a one issue candidate. Another said that he didn’t think that someone who was an expert in one of the areas of interest had a broad enough background to be the next District 3 councilman. Hogan acquitted himself of these insinuations very nicely, but this question revealed the deplorable fact that those candidates do not think gas industry issues are of any special priority in this election cycle. In fact no candidate but Hogan sees the true importance of the gas industry issues, and that is why they all deserve to lose this election.
