CA-46: I Wrote a Letter to the Long Beach Press-Telegram

Debbie CookIn case you missed it, our almost-hometown paper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, posted a lukewarm “endorsement” of both Dana Rohrabacher and Debbie Cook for Tuesday’s primary. While I appreciated the paper’s editorial board taking time to pay attention to the race in the 46th District, I was still disappointed in their giving excuses to “Crazy Dana” for his radical right rhetoric and voting record that are simply out of step with the more moderate views held by most voters in the 46th.

So what did I do? Why, I wrote a letter of course! Let’s see if the Press-Telegram prints my letter in their paper soon. (And by the way, you can send your own reply to the Press-Telegram’s editorial at letters@presstelegram.com.)

Oh yes, and here’s my full letter in case you’d like to read it yourself:

Thank you, Press-Telegram, for sparing some space on your editorial page to discuss the 46th Congressional District (“Easy Choices in the 46th District”, May 29). All too often, most of the media around here forgets that there’s even an election in this district. However, even while I appreciate your concern about the district, I must object to your mischaracterizations of the two major candidates running.

First off, I strongly disagree with your assessment of Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook as “too liberal” for the 46th. If anything, Debbie Cook is a much better fit for this district than the Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher. As a member of the Huntington Beach City Council, Cook as acted very responsibly on fiscal matters, working hard to rid the city’s budget of unnecessary waste. And yes, Cook is very passionate about protecting the region’s environment… But then again, don’t voters here care about our natural resources as well? Debbie Cook was instrumental in convincing her colleagues on the city council to make Huntington Beach one of the first Orange County cities to sign onto the US Mayors’ Initiative on Climate Change, and she has always worked her hardest to protect the city’s coastline and coastal wetlands. And contrary to conventional wisdom that voters here are too conservative to care about conserving our natural resources, voters here have rewarded Debbie Cook by electing her twice to the council with more votes than anyone else running.

Now contrast Cook’s record with Rohrabacher’s. Contrary to what you stated in your editorial, Rohrabacher does have a horrid record on protecting our environment. Even in a news story in your own paper (“Could GOP Lose Grip on the 46th?”, May 26), Rohrabacher said “you gotta watch out” for anyone who believes (along with nearly everyone in the scientific community, all 3 major Presidential Candidates, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and so many others) that humans are playing a major role in worsening climate change. And yes, Rohrabacher has followed his words with inaction by consistently voting against real solutions to tackle our climate & energy crisis by investing in renewable energy and technology to help us conserve energy… While he still votes to waste our tax dollars on endless [government] giveaways to oil companies. He even supports oil drilling off our coast!

So who’s truly out of touch with the voters of the 46th District? Personally, I’d say he incumbent Rohrabacher is. When voters here are looking for real solutions to solve the climate & energy crisis, end the Iraq War, and make the economy work for working people again, Dana Rohrabacher is just providing more of the same far-right, climate change denying, anti-middle class, Iraq War continuing political rhetoric that’s simply become tiresome to hear. Debbie Cook, on the other hand, has provided real solutions for Huntington Beach and will provide the solutions we’re looking for if we elect her to Congress this November.

3 Comments

  1. Silly thing is, it was technically an endorsement editorial for a primary election. Nobody is going to be choosing between Dana and Debbie until November. They should have at least given a couple sentences to the challengers, Kalmick and St. John.

    Still, Debbie zealot that I am, I used the opportunity to bash Dana. Here’s the letter I sent (let’s see if they print it)

    In your May 28 column “Easy decisions in the 46th,” (which, in fairness to Mr. St. John and Mr. Kalmick, could be summarized as “Vote for the better-known candidates”), you demonstrated understandable confusion as to Mr. Rohrabacher’s stance on climate change. This is because, at various times, depending on his audience and his mood, he has contended that:

    1. Climate change does not exist;

    2. It does exist but is not a problem;

    3. It may be a problem but is not caused by human activity;

    4. If it is caused by human activity there’s nothing we can do about it now, so let’s go on living the way we always have.

    In short, like so many other issues, it’s just not something Mr. Rohrabacher has ever put any serious thought or research into. And as long as his anti-regulatory position on pollution pleases his contributors and backers, why should he change it?

  2. Vern-

    True. But still, I couldn’t get how the LB Press-Telegram’s editorial board would ignore a recent news article published in their own paper (when Dana denied climate change again!) to give him a pass on his extremism. Oh yes, and I didn’t like how they then called Debbie Cook “too liberal”. How could they completely ignore her record of opposing waste in the city’s budget? If we’re to take the Press-Telegram’s endorsements seriously, they should at least get the facts straight.

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