Campaign '08, Congress

No gaps here

Today’s Houston Chronicle asks Houston-area Congressional candidates questions on key issues, which, not surprisingly, includes NASA. Specifically, the Chronicle asked the Democratic and Republican candidates in the 7th, 10th, and 22nd Districts, “Do you favor the Bush administration’s budget blueprint for NASA? Would you increase funding for the space agency?”

The sound-bite-sized repsonses published by the paper show that, in general, there’s very little difference among all the candidates in their support for the space agency. John Culberson, the Republican incumbent in the 7th District, states that he believes that “rhis administration has vastly underfunded NASA” and decries the Shuttle-Constellation gap. That gap is also criticized by Nick Lampson, the Democratic incumbent in the 22nd District, and his Republican challenger, Pete Olson, as well as Michael McCaul, the Republican incumbent in the 10th district. Culberson’s challenger, Michael Skelly, credits NASA for the “immeasurable return every year” the agency provides on its investment, while McCaul’s challenger, Larry Joe Doherty, states that NASA is “vital to the Texas economy and our nation’s scientific and educational future”. You could probably scamble the candidates’ names and positions on this issue and not tell the difference.

Meanwhile, in the “Parker vs. Parker” race to succeed Congressman Bud Cramer in Alabama’s 5th District, which includes Huntsville, Republican Wayne Parker and Democrat Parker Griffith each have op-eds in today’s Huntsville Times. Parker Griffith states that he is “ready to fight for our NASA, Missile Defense, Army and Intelligence jobs” and that, if elected, will align himself with conservative “Blue Dog Democrats” in the House “as I work for our NASA and defense programs.” Wayne Parker lashes out at ads that have claimed that he would cut funding for NASA and other popular programs in the area: “I do not support cutting jobs at Redstone Arsenal, NASA or TVA.” He also takes a moment to criticize the Democratic presidential candidate: “Obama has stated that he will cut tens of billions of dollars from ‘unproven’ missile defense systems and that he will not weaponize space. He has even proposed postponing NASA’s Constellation program by five years.” On that last point, it appears Wayne Parker is getting his information from that leading news source in northern Alabama, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

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