Take power from special interests

Before we get all teary eyed for Matt Salmon because of the terrible choice he had to make in rejecting the Clean Elections money, let's take a look at the traditional GOP fund-raising machine. Before he ever announced that he was going to run to the public, word came down from the GOP shot-callers that Mr. Salmon was going to be the next Republican candidate for governor.

So the GOP number crunchers did their thing and told him he will need X number of dollars to win the campaign. Next, Mr. Salmon got on the phone to his college buddies and business acquaintances, and his dad's friends and acquaintances and his brother's acquaintances · you get the idea. He calls these people and says, "Dick," or "Slim" or "Jimbo," (they always have cute nicknames for each other) "I'm running for governor; I'm gonna need a little cash."

These people are happy to help out, not only to help out a friend but to gain access to the office so the next time a bill or some other measure comes along that they don't like, they can call up the governor and say, "Rusty," (or whatever) "you know that bill · ?" Now the donor can't just send a check for a few-hundred thousand dollars; that would be illegal, and more importantly, it would look bad if it got out.

So they form or find some political action committee like "Arizonans for Freedom" or "Americans for Liberty" or "Workers for Justice" and buy commercial slots, or signs, or fund a grassroots campaign (if it's funded, is it grassroots?) so the candidate doesn't have to get his hands dirty.

So, instead of lamenting the demise of the "good ol' days" of politics, let's look to understand and support the democratic spirit of the Clean Elections Act and take the power out of the hands of special interests and give it back to the people, where it belongs.

Matt Ch‡vez
political science junior

Real story needs to be told

Regarding the Tuesday article "Parking prices to remain unchanged": I am wondering when the real story regarding the campus parking situation is going to get told, with the present university parking plan being exposed as misguided and not serving the interests of a large proportion of UA students and staff. Replacing the already insufficient number of Zone 1 parking spaces with high-priced parking garages is not a reasonable solution to the UA's parking woes. Coverage of this issue in the Wildcat for several years has failed to critically evaluate university parking policy and the information offered by Parking and Transportation Services spokespeople. What is important is not only how many Zone 1 spaces are available but the geographic distribution of those spots. With last year's construction of the Tyndall Avenue garage and the present Sixth Street garage construction, there has been a massive diminishing of the number of Zone 1 parking spaces available to permit holders who attend classes or work in the west or southwest portions of the campus. To track the real impact of Parking and Transportation Services policies, one must follow the trend over several years and with particular attention to the geographical distribution of parking spaces. Such policies are increasingly making a Zone 1 permit worthless depending on what part of the campus the holder frequents and what time of day they arrive. A further part of the sick joke aspect of this situation is that, according to the Tuesday article, Zone 1 permit holders have been paying via last year's price increases for the elimination of more Zone 1 parking spaces through the construction of additional parking garages. Between high priced parking and suggested large increases in tuition it would probably be wise to invest in those companies building luxury student housing complexes around town as the UA is well on the way of serving a clientele of only wealthier students.

Steve Wind
anthropology graduate student

Lynx hairs

In response to yesterday's issue of the week: While I often enjoy Shane Dale's contrarian approach to national political issues, I am dismayed when his ideology interferes with his grasp of the facts. The Washington Times and other liberal media outlets stressed how wicked environmentalists and bungling bureaucrats created a power shortage in California by impeding the development of new energy sources. The Sacramento Bee, however, found that wholesale power generators have intervened and slowed the state's licensing of 12 of the 21 power plant proposals since 1997. On March 31, 2001, The Washington Times uncritically passed on an assertion by the president of the Edison Electric Institute that no new power plants had been built in California in 12 years, when in fact, nearly 170 new generating plants came on line during the 1990s. Moreover, the idea of an actual power shortage was a convenient fiction cooked up by that darned liberal media again. The facts show that California's capacity to produce electricity far exceeded its peak demand during the periods of high rolling blackouts in 2000 and 2001. Thus, it was a farce for Cheney's task force to recommend building inefficient nuclear power plants and drilling in our national conservation areas. However, these proposals did serve to draw attention away from the activities of the energy traders, like Enron, in pushing for deregulation that would allow them to manufacture an energy "shortage."

Jeffrey Skilling was active at least since 1994 in pushing deregulation of the energy market to the California Legislature, promising reduced prices and savings of millions for California residents and governments. Deregulation in California, we now know, enabled Duke, Enron, Calpine, Dynegy and others to manipulate the generation of electricity to reap windfall profits. Californians now pay the highest prices for energy in the country. The crisis will cost California over $40 billion in the next 10 years due to the inflated prices of long-term contracts with the energy companies that were crafted at the height of the crisis.

As for LynxGate, that and other media hoaxes stirred up by pseudo-conservatives like Representative Scott McInnis of Colorado have been consistently debunked. See http://outside.away.com/outside/news/lynxgate_1.adp for some actual facts from individuals close to the action. In the future, I would recommend that Shane stay away from the liberal bias of The Washington Times and get his information from a real paper, like the Weekly World News. Blaming environmentalists for the actions of Cheney and his allies in the industry does a disservice to the Republican creed of personal responsibility.

Robert Ashley
law student