Follow
the money. We can all access official campaign contribution information by
going online. It’s at SBCVote.com .
When I did, this morning, it became clear that Joan Hartmann, our county
supervisor, has received contributions from lots of average folks. Bruce
Porter, however, is getting his contributions from a very small group, a
handful, of wealthy donors who have been aligned with Big Oil.
What
does this suggest? Joan Hartmann would continue to support the clean, renewable
energy economy and jobs that we benefit from now. She's done this for years.
This is our best future and she understands it well. Further, her re-election
would not affect existing employment in the oil fields.
A Porter
victory, however, would result in hundreds of new and dangerous oil wells. The
effect of this would be few new jobs and greater threats to the county budget
as we citizens would be paying to clean up oil spills and to repave roads after
tens of thousands of additional annual trips by heavy oil trucks.