The Broadwater PR Battle is in Overtime
I haven't seen what, if anything, Broadwater has been doing on the PR front over the past two weeks. Maybe it's flooding the airwaves with ads, maybe it's organizing a grass roots movement of proponents, maybe it's holding secret meetings with government decision makers. Who knows?
What I do know however is that Broadwater seems to be continuing to take a hit in the press. Way back on the day I left for vacation, Newsday moved a story about a new letter from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation saying that Broadwater still hasn't answered the questions it asked in December and as a result Broadwater's application remains incomplete (here). Newsday then published anti-Broadwater letters from Leah Schmalz of Save the Sound and from Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington, a Democrat (here), and an op-ed piece by Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's AG (here). And the Westport News editorialized against it (here).
A couple of weeks ago, when New York State extended its own deadline for making its coastal zone consistency decision by 60 days, the anti-Broadwater folks thought Broadwater would use the extra time to try to win public support. But if this were a basketball game, we'd be in overtime and the anti-Broadwater team has come out aggressively and scored the first few baskets. Overtime isn't over though and Broadwater has a chance to catch up.
What I do know however is that Broadwater seems to be continuing to take a hit in the press. Way back on the day I left for vacation, Newsday moved a story about a new letter from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation saying that Broadwater still hasn't answered the questions it asked in December and as a result Broadwater's application remains incomplete (here). Newsday then published anti-Broadwater letters from Leah Schmalz of Save the Sound and from Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington, a Democrat (here), and an op-ed piece by Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's AG (here). And the Westport News editorialized against it (here).
A couple of weeks ago, when New York State extended its own deadline for making its coastal zone consistency decision by 60 days, the anti-Broadwater folks thought Broadwater would use the extra time to try to win public support. But if this were a basketball game, we'd be in overtime and the anti-Broadwater team has come out aggressively and scored the first few baskets. Overtime isn't over though and Broadwater has a chance to catch up.
Labels: Broadwater, New York State
posted by Tom Andersen at 7:15 AM
2 Comments:
Welcome back Sir Tom and since you have no reports of hospitals stays I'm sure all was fine.
From a policy perspective, can you imagine if the NY Guv reversed his staff and the locals and went for approving Broadwater on his own? Man, he's get killed, and could even get impeached that way.
An apt analogy might be EPA Administrator Johnson who personally denied the California Waiver for carbon-based motor vehicle standards (many NE states backed this). He denied it against his own staff recommendations to approve the waiver. He now is looking at a retirement in very short order, and knows he is a cooked goose.
I can't imagine the NY Guv being such a wuss. It is political suicide and being a fall-down guy for a failed Bush strategy. Will Spitzer do the right thing or take a hickey and become the laughingstock of America?
The politics are interesting. You have NYS Dems ready to take over the state senate, even though Republicans state senators are strong on LI. If Spitzer does a "Stephen Johnson" on coastal consistency, it will to cement those Republican incumbents in their seats. All they have to do is cast the spectre of Spitzer on their Democratic (emphasis on the IC) opponents.
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