Space Coast congressional endorsements

Today’s Florida Today features an editorial endorsing Bill Posey for the Congressional seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Dave Weldon. Posey, a Republican, is running against Democrat Steve Blythe (who beat out a staunchly pro-space candidate in the Democratic primary in August) and two independents. The editorial argues that Posey will be a “strong advocate for NASA and its moon plan”, in part because of his work as a state legislator to get state support for the Cape.

By contrast, the editorial argues, Blythe’s “opposition to NASA’s manned moon program, saying it’s not worth the cost, is a huge mistake the Space Coast cannot afford.” That appears to be something of a misreading of Blythe’s rambling space policy document, unless Blythe has said otherwise in campaign speeches or ads. In the document Blythe calls the current plans to develop Constellation, including human missions to the Moon, “an appropriate goal for NASA”. Where he parts ways with the long-term vision is with plans for a lunar base or human missions to Mars. “I have expressed some concern that I have not seen justification for manned stations on the moon,” his policy states. As for Mars, “the extended time required, and the cost and danger of such missions combined with advancements in robotics makes a manned mission to mars [sic] a wonderfully romantic concept but hardly a rational one at this time.” [Emphasis in original.] His skepticism about lunar bases and current opposition to human Mars missions may not be as expensive a mistake for the Space Coast, at least in the near term, as the Florida Today editorial makes it out to be.

Blythe, though, does win the endorsement of the Orlando Sentinel in an editorial today. Interestingly, the editorial makes no mention of space in its decision, but space does come up elsewhere in the same editorial when the paper endorses Democrat Suzanne Kosmas in her bid to unseat Republican Congressman Tom Feeney in the neighboring 24th district. Feeney is “a steadfast advocate for the U.S. space program”, the editorial argues, but that position is not enough to offset the paper’s concerns about Feeney on other topics. Kosmas, meanwhile, “supports the space program, but she’d also direct resources at the space center toward developing alternative energy.” That support of alternative energy research at NASA isn’t reflected in her brief space policy statement on her campaign site, which states she would fully fund NASA and minimize the impact of the Shuttle-Constellation gap.