San Diego County California has a single metropolitan Newspaper, the San Diego Union Tribune. It's long time owners, the Copley family, sold it to a venture capital firm a couple of years ago, and it is on the block again. The price is cheap, the cost of the real estate, if anyone is interested in being a newspaper publisher.
Needless to say, they don't have much money for staff, and the most important question at interviews is how cheap are you willing to work for. But you can correspond with the executive editor, and I have developed a relationship with a regular columnist, Logan Jenkins. We both are tennis players and have corresponded extensively over the years. I prod him as he says to "higher stakes journalism" and sometimes he accepts my challenge.
We've had a 20 year battle about a 42 foot cross on public land, that has gone back and forth in the courts. I became friends with the man who originated the suit shortly before he died a few years back. I goaded Logan into writing an article urging moderation, a neutral non religious symbol to replace the cross.
Our latest interaction was when I read a N.Y. Times article that pointed out Darrell Issa's conflicts of interest in his earmarks, a bit to close to property that he owned. His newpaper did not reprint the article, which they have syndication rights to, and because it was about a local politician would usually appear in their paper. But Logan referenced it, and this was about the only reporting of this story.
I have written many guest editorials for a local weekly, The Coast News, so I decided to give it a shot. The readership is mostly conservatives, and since I am very aware that for most people, identification of the writer, left or right, friend or foe, is about as far as critical reading goes. So, while I was telling a story, I did not hesitate to laud Issa, that he got away with his ploy to boycott the story. And the only thing that stands between complete success is my article, on line at the Coast News, and now on this site.
First the link to the Coast News editorial, that has the disadvantage of no links to the references. Yet, if you read it there, it shows up for the publisher to know that people are interested in this. A click on the thumbs-up button would help, and so would a comment. And if you are interested in the same article with links, especially to the N.Y. Times article, it's hereon my personal blog.
The Times article was almost a puff piece compared to the stories of Issa's ruthlessness in his rise to power, as an article in the New Yorker described. The man plays hard ball, but I stepped up to the plate. And yeah, I want it to stay up on the Coast News site, and to give articles like this, and this writer, some credence when I submit other such articles.
Consituents of a member of congress have a disproportionate voice in shaping events. Senator Scott Brown is damn near as good as having a Democrat because he must be moderate or he will lose his seat. In some ways he is better than a Democrat, since when the goes with the left it becomes bipartisan. This is the thrust of my effort with Issa, and why I attempted to be critical but also to acknowledge his success. It will be hard to upset him in this new district, which is even more Rpublican than before redistricting. But if he feels that we could be the deciding votes in a given year, he must pay attention.
This was the goal of my article, to tell him that he is being evaluated on more than being a staunch conservative. I want him to pay heed, and he has read the essay, for certain. What he is trying to determine is the numbers that this point of view represents. So, reading, and responding to the Coast News guest editorial just could matter.