Oh, it’s a wonderful day today, isn’t it? Not just because we get to exercise our right to vote, but because it means an end to the flood of campaign ads where candidates and their allies accuse their opponents of being liars, phonies, spawn of Satan, or, worst of all, Washington insiders.
For space advocates, the most competitive race of interest is likely the race in the 22nd Congressional District in Texas (the seat formerly held by Tom DeLay), where Democrat Nick Lampson is facing a write-in campaign from Republican Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. A Houston Chronicle/Zogby poll last week suggested a tight race with a lot of people yet undecided: 36 percent for Lampson versus 28 percent for Sekula-Gibbs (35 percent for all write-in candidates). That’s closer than what it appeared to be earlier in the campaign, when Lampson had a larger lead (even though the 22nd District is majority-Republican, although not nearly as strongly Republican as some other districts in the region). How many of the people who say they’ll write-in Sekula-Gibbs in a poll will actually do so when they’re in the voting booth will be a key factor in the election’s outcome.
As previously noted here, Lampson has an extensive platform plank on NASA, supporting the exploration vision and calling for the elimination of a “space flight gap” between the end of the shuttle program and the introduction of Orion. Sekula-Gibbs also supports NASA in her platform, albeit in terse language: “Longstanding advocate for NASA/JSC—Supporting the President’s vision for space exploration.”
Elsewhere in the House, people like Ken Calvert, Bart Gordon, Dana Rohrabacher, and Mark Udall are all expected to easily win reelection; Sherwood Boehlert, chair of the House Science Committee, is retiring. Frank Wolf (R-VA), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that has oversight of NASA, is facing a surprisingly strong challenge in his suburban Washington district from Democrat Judy Feder; one report calls the race a “toss up” although Wolf is still favored by many pundits to win, by a slim margin.
In the Senate, both the chair of the Commerce Committee’s space subcommittee, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, and ranking Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida, are up for reelection today. Both, though, are expected to easily win: Nelson has a sizable lead over Katherine Harris while Hutchison leads Barbara Ann Radnofsky by 35 percentage points. Other Senate races will determine whether or not Hutchison and Nelson switch roles.
I’m Jeff Foust, and I approved this message.
A win for Lampson is a win for NASA. In addition to being a solid vote for NASA in the House, Lampson could achieve a great deal in solidifying support for the VSE among his fellow Democrats. And because the Democrats will be thinking ahead to 2008 and will obviously need to work hard to keep District 22, his holding that seat will give the Democrats a solid political reason for supporting NASA.
Actually, it’s rumored that if it’s close in the House, Lampson is a good candidate for a party switch.
I live in Texas and work in state politics. The rumor has been floating around but has absolutely no basis in fact. Republicans here detest Lampson more than they do Hillary Clinton.
“Republicans here detest Lampson more than they do Hillary Clinton.”
That’s certainly not true. No one is detested more than Hillary Clinton. In any case, anyone elected to Texas 22nd, no matter of which party, will be a reliable vote for VSE.
Jeff: Sherwood Boehlert, chair of the House Science Committee, is retiring.
Even though I often disagreed with him, and I’m in the other major political party, I consider this way too bad. As far as I could tell out here on the other coast, Representative Boehlert was always a thoughtful and careful voice of reason. He was not afraid to go against the majority opinion of his party to argue for what he thought was right. At least by me, he will be missed.
— Donald
Lampson may be for the VSE but can he buck his entire party if it has the majority in the House and it is hell bent on obliterating/blocking anything ever supported by Bush? And can Lampson or any of the other Democrats who are predisposed to space keep Oberstar from trying to gut the CSLAA?
Michael, my guess is that if the Dems take the House, we might see not so much a serious attempt to cancel VSE and one to transfer money from it to aeronautics, space science, etc.
Michael, I may be over-optimistic, here, but I think it very unlikely a Democratic Congress would actively fight the VSE. First, it will be at or near the bottom of their list of priorities. Second, NASA under Dr. Golden has done a masterful job of spreading the contractor wealth — being against the VSE is likely to mean being against jobs in your state. Third, as recent votes in Congress have demonstrated (somewhat to my surprise, it must be said), support for something like the VSE (if not the VSE itself) is bi-partisan: many younger Democratic politicians are not ideologically opposed to human spaceflight. Fourth, as Republican advertisements have been pointing out, any Democratic Congressional leadership is likely to be largely from the San Francisco area, and it is often forgotten that we do have a major presence in the space industry — NASA Ames, Loral Space, and Lockheed Martin are all headquartered here, as are more than our share of second and third tier subcontractors. Two of the nation’s remaining commercial satellite factories are here. San Francisco area politicians are aware of and often supportive of spaceflight issues.
I do expect a different tone, and automated space science may fare better under a Democratic Congress. But no Democratic Congress is likely to retreat entirely from human spaceflight, and, given that, there are not a lot of clear — and politically and financially acceptable — alternatives to something like the VSE. By the time they actually get around to addressing the issue, its likely to be pretty firmly entrenched. Viewed as a jobs program, it may even get more positive attention than it does under Mr. Bush.
— Donald
Oops, slip of the memory there: Dr. Griffin has done the masterful job of distributing the pork.
— Donald