I have often noted that the progressive movement in CA is a coastal phenomenon while the real battle for the future of this state is being fought in the Central Valley. This is true for the Green Party, of which I am a member and it appears to be true for Calitics as the nexus of California’s progressive netroots. <\/p>\n
Let me call attention to the 20th Congressional District, where Jim Costa campaigns like a Democrat<\/a>, but too often votes like a Republican, especially when the issues are ecological: water, fresh air, extractive industries, etc. <\/p>\n Last night, I was reading the most recent issue of High Country News. One article was about the proposal to re-establish Tulare Lake<\/a> as a cost effective alternative to building some of the dams called for in the Schwarzenegger Water Project passed by the legislature in the recent special session. Surprisingly, this story, from a Colorado based publication, mentioned that Steve Haze was going to enter the primary against Costa, and never a peep out of Calitics before this. <\/p>\n After reading the story, it seems to me that Haze has it right. <\/p>\n “We’ve lost more jobs in construction than we have in farming this year,” he says, piloting his granite blue Chevy pickup through clouds of fluffy bolls. “The real question is: How do we manage the water we have for farms, fish and people?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That is a far cry from Costa’s message of fry the delta smelt. In fact, Haze is doing a lot more. But it’s the feasibility study Haze completed last year that both the California Democratic Council and the California State Grange, a 137-year-old farmers’ advocacy group, quoted when they endorsed the plan. In that study, Haze’s team of engineers, hydrologists and economists argue that returning water to Tulare Lake would cost $1.3 billion — a fifth as much as a proposed dam that would capture flows from the Upper San Joaquin River at Temperance Flat. It would also store twice as much water. For the life of me, I don’t see why Calitics is not paying attention to this race. Finally, there is a chance to break the hold that regressive agribusiness puppets have had on the Central Valley and to let new ideas grow like the tules that once covered the landscape. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have often noted that the progressive movement in CA is a coastal phenomenon while the real battle for the future of this state is being fought in the Central Valley. This is true for the Green Party, of which I am a member and it appears to be true for Calitics as the nexus of California’s progressive netroots. <\/p>\n Let me call attention to the 20th Congressional District, where Jim Costa campaigns like a Democrat<\/a>, but too often votes like a Republican, especially when the issues are ecological: water, fresh air, extractive industries, etc. <\/p>\n
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