Category: David Schoetz
A Greener Corps?
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 – A young tourist arrived in Emerald Isle last summer eager to kick off her shoes and let her feet sink into the fine, white sand beaches for which North Carolina is famous.
Although the sand looked a bit darker than she expected, she bounded onto the beach-only to sink into a soup-like, thigh-high sludge that left her immobilized.
“She was lucky to be able to get herself out,” said Emily Farmer, an Emerald Isle resident and one of the activists who has opposed a dredging project, authorized by the Army Corps of Engineers, which has left the town’s beaches spoiled and the townspeople divided.
Residents narrowly voted in favor of a 2002 referendum for a beach “renourishment” project which supporters said would rescue eroding beaches and preserve area tourism. The Corps provided the permit, but when the independent contractor began pumping sand onto the beach from an off-shore spot, people were shocked by the results.
“People are kicking and screaming and saying, ‘What are you doing to the beach?’” Farmer said. “They haven’t destroyed the whole beach yet, but they sure are working on it.”
For many Emerald Isle residents, the experience with the Corps of Engineers has been frustrating. They accuse the agency of issuing the permit too quickly and failing to follow up to make sure the work was done correctly.
It’s the kind of experience that has prevented the Corps from shaking an unfavorable reputation among environmental groups. But Corps officials point to a growing environmental consciousness illustrated by projects like the restoration of the Sagamore Salt Marshes and, more broadly, stricter operating guidelines.
Now, many Cape Cod residents are carefully watching the Corps, which will determine whether Cape Wind can proceed with its ambitious renewable energy project in Nantucket Sound, a local controversy that has grabbed national headlines. Many wonder which experience Cape Codders will have: Emerald Isle’s or Sagamore’s.
But at $700 million the stakes for the wind farm dwarf those of smaller dredging and restoration ventures. Proposed in 2001, the Cape Wind project would consist of 130 wind turbines in Horseshoe Shoals that would produce, on average, roughly 75 percent of the Cape’s electricity demand. The Corps is the deciding body under Section 10 of the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act, which requires Corps approval for any construction in navigable waters.
Corps officials admit that environmental sensitivity often played second fiddle to efficient engineering in their projects for almost 200 years – if it mattered at all.
But in 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Protection Act and the Corps had a new charge: the environmental impact of every Corps project had to be taken into account before work commenced.
An old dog – one that since 1775 had proudly built much of the country’s infrastructure – would need to learn some new tricks.
It is an agency where nearly 34,000 civilians work for the military, thereby enjoying the government’s muscle, but also having to heel when ordered to do so.
Best-known for building spectacular projects, the Corps completed the Washington Monument and oversaw construction of the Panama Canal. Its engineers managed the Manhattan project, helping produce the first atomic bomb, and when President Kennedy declared that he wanted to put a man on the moon, the government turned to the Corps for help.
The Corps in 1928 rescued an abandoned Cape Cod Canal project, addressed its flaws and continues to play gatekeeper to the water body that separates the elbow of land from the rest of the country.
More than 15 Cape Cod harbors that greet mariners – in Edgartown and Falmouth, Harwich and Hyannis – were Corps projects and more recently its engineers have cleared explosives from Camp Wellfleet on the Cape Cod National Seashore and restored the Sagamore salt marshes.
For the Cape Wind project, the public has been invited to thumb through a nearly 4,000 page draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Cape Wind project that was prepared by the Corps with 16 cooperating agencies. Four town hall meetings were scheduled for citizens to provide feedback about the project and the review period was increased by 45 days.
Since 1970 the Corps has made significant operational changes intended to reflect a growing environmental concern. The number of staff scientists – biologists, archeologists and ecologists – has grown appreciably. An independent environmental advisory board was assembled that reports directly to the Corps commander. Restoration projects became a priority, environmental operating principles were created and district divisions assembled their own environmental branches.
Critics, however, describe the environmental changes as window dressing, and argue that the Corps remains a handmaiden to congressional members whose sole mission is to attract projects to their home states and districts. They point to Corps projects that went awry like the Emerald Isle fiasco as proof that the agency has not reformed a careless environmental past. Citizen concerns are not taken into account, opponents charge, and Corps lawyers defend against an endless string of environmental lawsuits, they say.
Martin Reuss, the senior Corps historian, knows the charges well, but said the environmental progress of the last 30 years is real.
Reuss said staff turnovers have cleared out many of the “old timers” who resisted environmental constraints. Sharpened expertise at state and local levels and tighter federal funding, he said, have forced the Corps to take on partnerships – often at the local level – a change that naturally produces stricter environmental regulation.
“I think today, we’re more concerned about ensuring a project from the get-go,” Reuss said. “Our cautionary partners are involved in the planning process and are trying to do what is good engineering but also responds to local needs.”
But Reuss also acknowledged that Corps employees are “good soldiers” who have superiors to whom they must report. “These policies and approaches are not developed by the Corps of Engineers in a vacuum,” Reuss said. “They are developed in accordance with the guidance of Congress and the executive branch.”
To Oliver Houck, a conservation lawyer who has sued the Corps many times, this union of civilian know-how and military might makes the Corps “the most schizoid agency in the federal domain.”
The former attorney for the National Wildlife Federation sat on the Corps environmental board in the mid-1970s and is now a professor at Tulane University law school. He has frequently wrangled with the Corps about its projects in the Mississippi delta and accused Reuss of living in a “Washington dream world.”
“Their construction program is the plaything of Congress,” Houck said, adding that the Corps often behaves like “just another highway department sucking mud and laying concrete.”
He said that if any environmental progress has been made, it is on the regulatory side, a role that has increased substantially for the Corps since the 1972 Clean Water Act. That legislation authorized Corps oversight of dredging or dumping projects in the country’s wetlands.
“The impact statements on their own projects, like those of other agencies, tend to be propaganda pieces,” said Houck. “When it’s dealing with third party permits, the Corps is at its most honest and believable.”
Still, Houck said that while environmental concerns may be mitigated during a review process, the companies seeking permits almost always get the go-ahead.
“I’d say 99 percent,” confirmed Mark Sudol, the chief of the regulatory programs at Corps headquarters in Washington. It’s a figure that stirs ire from environmental groups which, Sudol said, fail to recognize environmental impacts that regulators have confronted in their reviews.
“When we’ve done our job, everyone is mad at us,” Sudol said. “We’ll work very hard to avoid negative impacts, so the developer doesn’t get the project he or she wants. On the other hand, the environmentalists aren’t happy because we issued the permit.”
Roughly 86,000 permits were issued in 2003 and Sudol expected that number to reach 90,000 this year.
While Sudol normally trusts his district regulators’ decision-making, he said he is “keeping an eye on” the Cape Wind review because it has generated talk about a need for national policy change – something project opponents like Gov. Mitt Romney (R) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) have repeatedly advocated.
One area that Sudol and other Corps officials admit remains problematic is project oversight. Once projects are approved, Sudol admitted, the Corps lacks resources, both in funding and staffing, to monitor them – sometimes leading to problems like that at Emerald Isle. Sudol has requested an increase in his 2005 and 2006 budgets for more compliance work, calling it an area where the Corps’ can do better.
Beverly Getzen, the chief of the Corps’ office of environmental policy, agreed that the Corps must improve its monitoring work.
“I think the real nagging problem for all of us to face is how projects are ultimately managed, operated and maintained,” she said. “How do we make sure the projects are maintained 20 years from now?”
But Getzen, who has worked for the agency since 1972, argues that the Corps has become more eco-friendly. She remembers the first environmental impact statements as very different from those produced today, like the 4,000-page volume released for Cape Wind.
“Everyone was struggling with what to do and how to do it,” Getzen said. “People proudly provided 15-page documents accompanying their project plans.”
She also mentioned efforts to streamline data, citing recent agreements with the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Geological Survey intended to support information-sharing about project successes and failures.
Even skeptics concede that the Corps has improved – somewhat.
“For the vast majority of their history, protecting the environment is not a part of their charge,” said Seth Kaplan, a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, which provisionally supports the Cape project-providing the rigorous environmental review comes out positively. “Congress told them to care about this stuff. Does it truly manifest itself in the way the Corps does business? The answer is sometimes.”
By no means, he said, is the overhaul complete.
“They’re not dancing around in Birkenstocks over there,” Kaplan said, who has often battled the Corps in the past. “The big picture is the military is like an aircraft carrier. Turning it is a really hard thing to do.”
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Bush Set to Sign Revised Special Education Law
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - The 108th Congress is poised to send a bill to President Bush that would reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, updating the law that provides money and protections for the country's 6.7 million disabled students.
The House voted 397-3 in favor of the legislation Friday and the Senate approved it by voice vote before adjourning.
President Bush will likely sign the IDEA reauthorization into law before the completion of his first term.
House and Senate negotiators announced Wednesday that after an almost two-year debate, they had reached a compromise on the specific reforms each chamber sought for the current legislation, which was last modified in 1997.
The changes range from improving the discipline system for special education students to increasing standards for special education teachers, working more directly with parents and minimizing bureaucratic inefficiency.
"The agreement we have reached demonstrates what America has come to realize, that students with disabilities are a far too important priority to be used as a political tool or cast aside because of an election schedule," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the senior Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Kennedy, who co-authored the Senate version of the bill, has been involved with special education law since 1975, when Congress passed landmark legislation intended to ensure free and appropriate education for students with disabilities.
According to a Kennedy spokesman, the senator was instrumental in pushing through the legislation during the lame-duck congressional session.
Kennedy has acknowledged that parents might prefer the disciplinary protections of the 1997 law, but added that the Senate took steps to prevent special education students from being disciplined for behavior resulting from their disability.
Cutting red tape
The last reauthorization required a hearing whenever a disabled student faced school suspension of more than 10 days. Those hearings were designed to determine whether a disability identified on the student's individualized education program had caused the misbehavior.
Currently, all members of a student's individualized education team must be present at those meetings, a mandate that critics say slows the disciplinary process. The new bill requires that only the relevant members attend.
"With an (individualized education program) meeting comes a tremendous amount of red tape," said Alexa Marrero, a spokeswoman for Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. "Now the school, the parent and the relevant members of the (program) are going to get together and look at the fact patterns. It's going to make a big difference."
According to Marrero, schools have had an extremely difficult time separating infractions from disabilities and some teachers have complained that they lack control. "Virtually everything could be attributed to a disability," Marrero said. "The burden of proof was entirely on the schools, and they had to prove a negative."
Gary Urgonski, director of special education at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich, said that assembling a student's whole team can be difficult and that as long as all the necessary people are at the hearing, special education students will remain protected.
Urgonski oversees more than 200 special education students at Cape Cod Tech. According to the Massachusetts Department of Education, there were more than 3,900 special education students in Barnstable County in the 2003-2004 school year.
40 percent goal far off
The bill would require new special education teachers to meet competency standards in their subject areas, something currently required of other classroom teachers. To calm critics who said that special education teachers often teach multiple subjects, the bill provides teachers additional time to comply as long as they meet standards in their primary field.
Bill Rokicki, director of student services for Falmouth schools, said the goal is retaining the best teachers, not imposing stiffer standards. "It's an absolute myth that if we raise the standards, we get better teachers," he said. "If you raise salaries, then you get the better teachers."
Special education funding remains controversial. According to the original 1975 legislation, Congress must provide schools with 40 percent of the funding needed for special education programming - a percentage it has never achieved. The bulk of special education funding comes from local taxes.
While the federal appropriation has increased from $2.1 billion in 1994 to $10.1 billion in 2004, Congress still currently provides only 19 percent of special education funding. The new bill calls for Congress to "recommit" to reaching that 40 percent mark by 2011.
"I deeply regret that this bill does not require the federal government to meet its full funding commitment to local schools to help them cover the costs of special education," Kennedy said on the Senate floor Friday.
Walter Healy, executive director of the Cape Cod Collaborative, which helps coordinate a variety of education-related services throughout the Cape, was hardly surprised.
"The intentions are good, but they set a goal of 40 percent, and they never come through with it," Healy said. "And the locals have to make up the difference."
(Published: November 22, 2004)
Congress Extends Its Year
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15- Before the 109th Congress arrives in January, the current group of lawmakers will meet to deal with unfinished business in a lame-duck session that begins tomorrow and will likely end Friday.
Budgetary issues and intelligence reform are the most pressing concerns lawmakers face, but it is unclear how the House and Senate will move to act on issues they failed to resolve over the past two years.
The lame-duck session also will provide a glimpse into party strategies before the new Congress convenes in January with strengthened Republican majorities in both the House and Senate and under the direction of Republican President George Bush, who has pledged to accomplish more bipartisan work during his second term.
Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and the 108th Congress passed only four of 13 appropriations bills during the last session, leaving it unknown how much funding will go toward areas like energy, agriculture and education.
Three of the four bills that did pass before the election involved military spending: the defense bill, the Homeland Security bill and the military construction bill.
Republican leadership will also likely push to increase the current $7.4 trillion federal debt ceiling by roughly $650 million to accommodate government spending, a move Democrats will point to as an example of Republican fiscal irresponsibility.
"It's slam-dunk evidence of the dysfunctional Republican Congress that they have to call a special session to extend the nation's borrowing limit in the face of bloated deficits and debt spiraling out of control," said former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
Steve Schwadron, spokesman for Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., added that Republicans have failed to level with the American public about their massive spending habits.
"This leadership insisted on tax cuts, insisted on this bogus prescription drug plan and the war is very costly," said Schwadron. "If you're going to do all this, let's stop pretending. We've hit the legal limit for the public debt. If they don't want to raise it, then we shouldn't be spending at this pace."
"Omnibus" bill may be next
Republicans may avoid a direct vote on the debt ceiling by rolling the increase into an "omnibus" spending bill for legislators to vote on. The umbrella package could encompass multiple appropriations and provide a quick fix to avoid wrangling over separate, detailed appropriations bills.
Congress also could pass a continuing resolution, which would allow spending to continue at its current level until a designated January date when the new members would be forced to address appropriations bills. The current continuing resolution ends Saturday.
According to Vanderbilt University political science professor Bruce Oppenheimer, author of several books about Congress, omnibus spending bills often result in a mixed bag - and frequently, lawmakers don't even know what they're voting for.
"The fine print gets lost," Oppenheimer said. "There will be stuff slipped in and slipped out at the end. I usually think of it as a 'Clint Eastwood bill.' You get the good, the bad, and the ugly."
Regarding intelligence reform, the House and Senate have sparred over specific terms that would address recommendations from the Sept. 11 commission.
Intelligence budget secret
Last Monday, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, author of the Senate bill, announced an important concession to House Republicans by agreeing to keep the size of the nation's overall intelligence budget secret. Formerly, the Senate version of the bill followed commission recommendations to publicly disclose the figure.
Both the House and Senate already have responded to one of the commission's primary recommendations by passing bills to create a national intelligence director post that would improve coordination between the CIA and FBI. Differences in the extent of that authority, however, continue to hamstring progress.
While his office remains hopeful that intelligence reform will be accomplished, Schwadron said "an intra-Republican meltdown" may prevent the bill's passage before the lame-duck session ends, as Republicans in the House and Senate cannot agree on certain terms of their respective bills.
Kerry, who claimed that Republican leaders are "preparing to set aside intelligence reform," said that the majority party has failed to execute two central aspects of its platform.
"Can they even claim with a straight face to be fiscal conservatives or security hawks?" Kerry asked. "We need to offer strong reforms for our security and a blueprint for restoring fiscal responsibility."
Four lame-ducks in a row
Despite an amendment to the Constitution in 1933 that shifted congressional and presidential calendars to minimize the frequency of these sessions, this is the fourth consecutive lame-duck session.
While unfinished appropriations work is the most frequent cause of the extended sessions, associate Senate historian Donald Ritchie said there have been noteworthy lame-duck moments.
In 2002, legislation for the creation of the department of Homeland Security and the Sept. 11 commission was passed. Bill Clinton was impeached by the House in a 1998 lame-duck session, only to be acquitted later by the Senate. And former Sen. Joseph McCarthy was censured by the Senate in a December lame-duck session in 1954.
According to Ritchie, there are many reasons Congress may not finish its business before elections, from disagreements between the House and Senate to making sure the president's agenda is taken care of by his congressional leaders.
"The congressional schedule has always worked a little like an accordion," Ritchie said. "There are times when it spreads out and not a lot gets done, and there are times when it's packed in and very intense."
It also helps that the pre-election pressure is gone.
"They have certain work to get done," Ritchie said. "And they can operate with more speed and efficiency when they're not looking over their shoulder."
Romney in D.C., Fights Wind Farm
WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 - Gov. Mitt Romney took his fight against the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm to the White House yesterday.
Romney met with President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, to discuss the importance of coastal zoning to prevent the construction of wind farms such as the one proposed by Cape Wind.
Under the Coastal Zone Management Act, which creates offices in each coastal state, the state office must find a project is consistent with state regulations and activities before the Army Corps of Engineers can issue a permit for a project.
Coastal Zone Management officials in Massachusetts are currently evaluating the project.
Romney said he reiterated to Card his belief that the technological benefits of the Cape Wind project would not outweigh the negative impact the project would have on the scenery, culture and economy of a tourist destination like Cape Cod.
"If wind farms are going to be used to provide power for this nation, then one wind farm is going to lead to other wind farms," Romney said. "Let's not make the first one on the East Coast in Nantucket Sound."
Romney was in Washington to speak about affordable housing for the Fannie Mae Foundation.
The Republican governor's meeting with Card earlier in the day raised questions about a possible White House Cabinet position for Romney during Bush's next four years.
"We didn't discuss anything but my hard and fast commitment to serve my term," Romney said of his discussion with Card. It was announced Monday that Card, a Massachusetts native, would be kept on in the Bush administration. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans resigned their posts the next day.
Romney also described any speculation about a 2008 presidential run as "too remote," adding, "I've got a state to help lead."
Cape Link to House ‘Haven’
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8- The news ticker crawling across the television in Barry Sullivan's office in the U.S. Capitol confirmed what he already knew: John Kerry was conceding the presidency to George Bush and the Republicans had increased their majority in both the House and Senate.
"When I first got here, it was great," said Sullivan, who for 20 years has managed the House Democratic cloakroom in the Capitol. "We had a huge majority."
But at 57, the South Boston native - with lifetime ties to Falmouth Heights and a stubborn Boston accent - has witnessed the control of the House slip from legendary Massachusetts Democrats like Thomas "Tip" O'Neill and Joseph Moakley to a new breed of Republican leadership.
"You could see things starting to turn," he said, describing an upstart Republican named Newt Gingrich barking insults at O'Neill as he sat in the Speaker's chair in the House chamber during the 1980s. "They were just throwing bombs at him and it started snowballing."
The Democrats lost a nearly 50-year control of the House in 1994 and according to Sullivan, bipartisan work has grown increasingly strained, with Democrats looking for a legislative voice.
"There's a different strategy when you're in the minority," Sullivan said. "There's not much you can do procedurally. You have to play defense."
The House of Representatives Democratic cloakroom that Sullivan runs is a wood-paneled inner sanctuary for his party's members located just off the floor of the House. Even congressional staffers are restricted from entering.
"Members only" munch on hot dogs and commiserate between votes. They sink into leather armchairs and stretch out on sofas, with older members nodding off when House sessions stretch into the night. They make calls from a wall of old-style phone booths, read the papers and banter about their hometown sports teams.
When MSNBC's Chris Matthews needs colorful details for his next book, he calls Sullivan. If he's lucky, Sullivan returns the call.
"It's almost a safe haven," said Kevin Ryan, describing the clandestine clubhouse. Ryan is chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-South Boston, and held the same post for former Rep. Joseph Moakley, a 15-term House member from South Boston who retired in 2001 to fight an unsuccessful battle with leukemia.
"Knows what's going on"
Like Sullivan, Ryan grew up in South Boston and the two worked together at a Faneuil Hall bar in the late 1970s before Moakley tapped them both for jobs in Washington. Ryan said he sends any new Democratic members directly to Sullivan.
"Down here, members are looking for somebody who knows what's going on," Ryan said. "Barry controls the cloakroom and it's a place of information."
Sullivan grew up immersed in the golden age of Irish clout in Boston that dominated during much of the last century. His father, Leo Sullivan, was a central player of the era, serving on Beacon Hill as a representative and then state senator, as register of deeds for Suffolk County, and as Boston police commissioner. In 1960, he escorted president-elect John F. Kennedy from Logan International Airport to the Boston Garden for his victory rally.
But while Sullivan's father loved South Boston, he also loved Cape Cod, and every June he would escape there with his family the day school ended. At the same summer rental on Amherst Avenue in Falmouth Heights, Barry delighted in the Cape's simple pleasures with his older brother and sister.
Grew up in the Heights
Sullivan described Little League highlights at the old ballfield in the Heights, racing Beetle Cats off the Falmouth Yacht Club docks and waterskiing at Great Pond when the ocean was too rough. He shagged fly balls for the Falmouth All-Stars before they became the Commodores and worked the scoreboard for a buck a game. Later, he was a lifeguard at Surf Drive and tended bar at the old Casino-by-the-Sea nightclub.
In 1961, Sullivan followed his brother to St. John's Prep, an all-boys boarding school in Danvers. Two years later, his father - whom Sullivan credits for his interest in politics - died of a heart attack, the same year President Kennedy was shot.
"I had a bad year that year," Sullivan said, describing the homesickness that set in. "My father died and Kennedy was assassinated. I was 15 years old."
But his father's old friends - especially Moakley, then a relatively new member of Congress - would keep an eye on "Leo's son."
Sullivan took a job as a page on Beacon Hill, serving four Republican state senators, including Allan "Chappy" Jones, a brash Cape Cod senator who frequently had Sullivan meet him at John's Capeside Diner near the Sagamore Bridge to chauffeur him to Boston.
He left that job to finish a political science degree at Boston State College - now the University of Massachusetts at Boston - and was making good money tending bar when he bumped into Moakley on the street in 1979.
"You've got to get out of the bar business," Moakley told his friend's son. "Tip O'Neill is the speaker of the House. He served in the Legislature with your father. Would you consider coming to Washington?"
With his mother's blessing, Sullivan packed his Toyota Celica and left South Boston. Four years later, he was assistant manager in the Democratic cloakroom and in 1988, Tip O'Neill appointed him manager, a post he has held since.
Scheduler and strategist
His responsibilities vary. One part master scheduler, he makes sure Democrats know when recorded votes will occur, posting the "Best Guesstimate for Last Vote" sign, a beacon to House members itching to catch a flight to their home states. One part strategist, he attends exclusive party leadership meetings so he understands the overall direction of the party.
His desk - a carefully arranged clutter of pager systems, telephones and Red Sox clippings - is command central and he is the last face representatives see before entering the House chamber through the cloakroom's swinging door.
Sullivan knows his regulars and has a story about them all, from California Rep. Nancy Pelosi primping before the recently installed vanity table and the Bronx's Rep. Jose Serrano needling the Massachusetts delegation (and Sullivan) about a certain Sox collapse, to the secret tuna stash that snack bar attendants would keep for Tip O'Neill.
Sullivan also oversees 20 high school pages, who help the Democrats in the House, and announces votes to the representatives, a job that initially forced him to work on curbing his distinctive Boston accent.
Pronouncing the r's
"I have trouble with the ahhs," Sullivan said, admitting that the practice didn't help in pronouncing names like Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. "Like when I call for a vote on the Mahky amendment, the southerners don't understand what I'm saying. They'll say, 'Jesus, Sullivan, what are you talking about?'"
Kevin Ryan used words like "trustworthy" and "loyal" to describe why Sullivan has been reappointed cloakroom manager with each change in party leadership since 1988.
Sullivan met his wife, Barbara, in 1983 when she was a security guard for the House Chamber and her father, William Hughes, was a House Democrat from southern New Jersey.
She said that when they leave Washington, they will retire to the Cape, a place she has grown to love. Every August during the congressional recess, the Sullivans visit Falmouth, where Sullivan takes their three sons bluefishing at Horseshoe Shoal and to see Falmouth Commodores baseball games. Sullivan remains a member of the Falmouth Men's Club.
U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., said Sullivan, with his flawless imitation of Tip O'Neill and a fierce loyalty to the Red Sox, is a throwback to the old days in the House and a consummate professional.
"He's really an integral part of the system," Delahunt said. "It's always reassuring working with Barry. It's like being home."
Double Duty for Delahunt
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25- For U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, the so-called congressional "recess" preceding the Nov. 2 election is nothing but a misnomer.
Until the election, Delahunt will continue to split his time between managing his own re-election campaign and assisting with U.S. Sen. John Kerry's bid for the presidency.
Delahunt will skip from local events with the constituents of his district, which stretches from Quincy to Provincetown, to battleground states where he will rally support for an old friend.
"It's a potpourri, if you will, but it's wherever we're needed," said Delahunt, D-Mass., who is seeking a sixth term against Republican challenger and Plymouth native Mike Jones.
Delahunt first met an ambitious John Kerry more than 35 years ago. At the time, Delahunt had just become district attorney in Norfolk County and Kerry had taken a job as an assistant district attorney in nearby Middlesex County. According to Delahunt, the curious young prosecutor showed up at his office looking for advice.
Now Kerry is calling on Delahunt again, and the congressman - along with the rest of the Massachusetts House delegation and, of course, Sen. Edward Kennedy - is more than willing to pitch in.
Last weekend Delahunt was in Florida, the epicenter of the 2000 election controversy and a deeply contested state where the Massachusetts lawmaker has many established ties. Delahunt described the tension there as "palpable" and said he will return to Florida again before the election.
He also has visited Maine, one of two states that can split its electoral votes - an outcome the Kerry team is hoping to avoid. While the statewide winner in Maine is guaranteed two electoral votes, the other two are determined by the winner in each of the state's congressional districts. Most believe that the densely populated southern district, which includes Portland, is a Kerry lock, but the sprawling northern region appears to be up for grabs.
Justine Griffin, a spokeswoman for the Kerry campaign in Boston, said that P.J. O'Sullivan, an adviser in past Delahunt campaigns, is running the "Get Out the Vote" effort for the Kerry team in Maine.
Delahunt was in Pennsylvania this weekend, another state that could swing in either direction and perhaps determine the election outcome. He said his tasks would vary in magnitude, ranging from intimate meetings with retirees to addressing large crowds at Democratic rallies.
Despite jokes about regretting having to watch the Red Sox in the World Series away from the Bay State, Delahunt understands how important his role as a Kerry surrogate may prove.
"Dick Cheney is right - this is the most important election in history," Delahunt said.
He described the challenges he received from Bush supporters during his campaign travels as "visceral more than intellectual" and said he often ends up in lengthy conversations where he promotes Kerry's strengths and outlines President Bush's "negative campaign."
According to Delahunt, the Red Sox championship run simply adds stress in the days before his own election and the presidential election.
"It's going to be exhausting and emotional and tiring," he said. "But November 3 could be a great day."
College Voters Plan to Smash Stereotypes
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23- Apathetic and unreliable: two buzzwords frequently stamped on college voters.
But according to a study released Thursday by the Harvard Institute of Politics, young voters will likely shatter that outdated notion on Nov. 2 - and students at Cape Cod Community College are eager to help the cause.
The Cambridge researchers have kept close tabs on college-age voters since 2000, when they noticed a lagging student turnout despite the hotly contested presidential election. Many young voters simply - and maybe selfishly - said that politics had no direct effect on their lives.
Since then, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the Iraq War that followed have been hot-button issues. Meanwhile, a sagging economy that makes a recent graduate's job search more difficult hits home with 20-somethings.
And thanks to the bottomless spread of information from 24-hour cable news, the Internet and the advent of blogging - personal logs published on the Web - has brought big issues to the forefront for many young men and women.
"It appears this campaign has certainly erased apathy among young people," said John Della Volpe, a partner at the polling firm used in the survey. "These college students are coming on November 2. They're ready to make their voices heard."
The Harvard academics surveyed 1,202 students at colleges and universities across the country. While critics often argue that it's impossible to gauge the youth vote because students are notoriously difficult to contact, these researchers purchased a database that gave them access to more than 5 million student phone numbers - including cell phones.
According to the report, 84 percent of college students reported that they will "definitely be voting" in November, a 20 percent increase from just six months ago. In past elections, 60 percent of these would-be voters actually cast ballots.
In 2000, 42 percent of college students turned out to vote.
Voter registration is also dramatically up - 73 percent of students surveyed said they were registered - evidence not only of a revitalized political fervor but also of the success of get-out-the-vote campaigns such as MTV's "Rock the Vote."
An overwhelming number of students - 93 percent - disagreed with the statement, "It really doesn't matter to me who the president is." While 87 percent agreed that "politics is relevant to my life right now."
According to community members at Cape Cod Community College, the Harvard researchers' findings accurately reflect student opinions on campus.
"I was surprised about how knowledgeable students were about these things," said Alex Howell, 25, the managing editor of the Main Sheet, the school's weekly student newspaper.
In a September opinion piece, Howell chided fellow students for the poor turnouts by college voters in the past, saying that the issues at stake in this election "will affect everyone in some fashion."
The college's Web site has added a link for student voter registration, and next week the school will hold a forum in the campus's Upper Commons where curious students can ask professors and peers questions about the candidates and issues.
Claudine Barnes of Yarmouth, a professor of history and American government at the college, said the results of the Harvard study are reflected in her classes each day.
"I see it in the questions they ask and in the correlations my students make between things like Iraq and U.S. imperialism," Barnes said.
Student concerns span a broad range, she said, citing many students who have military ties and others who are worried about how they will take care of aging parents. While she could not finger a single cause for renewed student interest in politics, she said the polarizing nature of this election might have something to do with it.
Sean Males, secretary of the Student Senate, said he thinks that's exactly the case.
"Voter registration this year alone has been amazing," said Males, a Nantucket resident. "People are more interested because they don't like the way things are being done."
Kathleen Schatzberg, the college's president, accepted that a difference of opinion may be one of the prime motivations for students to vote but said that that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"People talk about student apathy at various stages in history," said Schatzberg, who has worked in community colleges for more than 26 years. "When I was in college in the '60s, it was the heyday of activism, and I haven't seen interest in the electoral process in students since then."
Delahunt Bests Jones in Fundraising
WASHINGTON, Oct.22- Republican Mike Jones has raised more than double the campaign funds of six other Bay State congressional challengers, but it's pennies compared with U.S. Rep. William Delahunt's war chest.
Jones, whose campaign against the Quincy Democrat appears to be an uphill battle, faces a daunting financial gap, according to campaign finance records. Delahunt has $1.8 million in his campaign coffers, compared with the $214,345 Jones has raised as of Sept. 30.
"It makes the idealistic side of me sad that in America money seems to be the only qualifying factor for office," Jones said.
The Plymouth resident is the founder and owner of Capitol Capital Group LLC, a public relations and lobbying firm that specializing in promoting the growth of business in the Middle East. Jones is also a former executive director of Republicans Abroad.
Delahunt, a member of the International Relations and Judiciary Committees, is seeking a fifth term representing the 10th District of Massachusetts. The district stretches from Quincy along the South Shore down to the Cape and islands.
Donations to Delahunt include $1,000 contributions from high profile supporters such as Sen. John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, and Kerry's presidential campaign strategist, John Sasso, and $500 from Ben Barnes, the Texas attorney who claimed to help secure President Bush a spot in the National Guard during the Vietnam War.
Massachusetts business leaders have also contributed to Delahunt, who entered Congress in 1996. Jim Davis, chairman and CEO of Boston-based New Balance shoes, donated $1,000, as did Dan Wolf, president of Hyannis-based Cape Air.
William Spence, owner of Massachusetts Bay Lines, a charter boat company that runs cruises from Rowes Wharf in Boston, contributed $2,000, the full amount allowed by the Federal Election Commission per candidate per election cycle.
Delahunt also welcomed support from his home city as Marina Bay developer Peter O'Connell and Big Dig contractor Jay Cashman, both with business in Quincy, contributed.
Individual donations
Individuals contributed $545,407 to Delahunt this cycle, accounting for just over half the $1,043,264 he raised, according to the latest reports. As of Sept. 30, he had spent $614,315 on his campaign.
"I knew I was going to be going up against a massive amount of money," said Jones, whose coffers include $34,000 from his own pockets. He has spent $201,693 on the campaign, leaving him with $12,650 on hand in the run up to the election - less than 1 percent of Delahunt's total.
Jones said that while he knew he would be heavily outspent, he described the financial gap as frustrating.
"They tend to be small donations from people that don't have a lot, but who give what they can to move our agenda forward," Jones said.
Jones received a fraction of the political action committee funding that an established legislator like Delahunt attracts. PACs permit special interest groups to contribute up to $10,000 to a congressional campaign each election cycle.
Total PAC contributions to Delahunt reached $286,000, with 10 PACs making the maximum contribution, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Laborers Union and the National Cable and Telecommunication Association. The Jones campaign received $7,825 in PAC funding.
"It may be that these people like the work we're doing," Delahunt spokesman Steve Schwadron said. "You're likelier to get a contribution from the service employees (who contributed $5,000 to the Delahunt campaign) if you stand up for minimum wage."
Supporting the party
While most of Delahunt's contributions have come from Boston and Cape Cod, the third highest contribution by region is from Miami, Fla. On a single day last February, Delahunt raised more than $14,000 from over 20 Floridians.
In Congress, Delahunt has been a vocal supporter of softening trade and travel restrictions with Cuba. Many of those contributors have connections to Cuba, including Alfredo Duran, a Bay of Pigs veteran, and executives at two companies that charter trips to the island.
"He's someone who admires the work we're doing," Schwadron said of Duran. "It's gratifying because it shows that the work that we're doing is held in high respect."
The Delahunt campaign has been gracious to other Democrats, donating $100,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and donating $1,000 to 13 candidates who are "either partners here in the House or who are strong challengers in other scenes."
According to Schwadron, the congressman's donations don't go unnoticed.
"We've given away a lot of Cape Cod ties," Schwadron said, referring to the ubiquitous fashion tribute Delahunt makes to his district. "As a result, there are a lot of members of Congress who are walking across Capitol Hill with Cape Cod on their chest."
Delahunt and Jones were scheduled to debate last night in a candidate forum sponsored by the Falmouth League of Women Voters, which also featured candidates for county commissioner and state representative.
Jones, who has accused Delahunt of dodging debates, said he looks forward to focusing on policy instead of financing.
"I worry about the money issue knocking attention away from the real issues," Jones said.
(Published: October 22, 2004)
House Dems Ask For Flu Help From President
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14- U.S. Rep. William Delahunt joined 70 House Democrats this week in drafting a letter to President Bush calling for immediate action to assure only high-priority citizens receive vaccinations this season and that similar shortages are prevented in the future.
"This is an effort to exert some political pressure to restore urgency to a public health emergency," Delahunt spokesman Steve Schwadron said. "It's not getting the attention it needs."
The letter cited the vaccine shortage in 2000-2001 as evidence of a missed opportunity by the federal government to more closely monitor the procurement and distribution of vaccines to prevent another crisis, rather than scrambling to react.
"The eve of an imminent flu crisis is not quite the time to debate the merits of federalism in public health," the legislators wrote.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it learned last week that Chiron Corp., one of two companies that provide the United States with injectible influenza vaccine, had its manufacturing plant in Liverpool, England, closed by British regulators - a decision that cost the United States 46 million of the 100 million vaccine doses it had ordered.
On Tuesday, the CDC presented a plan to reallocate a portion of the 55 million doses provided by Aventis Pasteur and reminded the public how important it was that people in the high-risk category receive flu shots this season.
But Aventis has already shipped more than 32 million doses, including more than 80,000 to Massachusetts. Of the remaining 22.4 million unshipped doses, 14.2 million have been earmarked for high-risk patients and states that have not yet received any vaccine. According to the CDC, at least 4 million doses will be stockpiled, leaving only 4 million doses to cover the Chiron shortages.
"You can run the numbers," Schwadron said. "Government has certain fundamental functions, and one of them is doing everything known to mankind to protect personal health."
Delahunt's district includes Cape Cod and the islands, where the median age is among the highest in the state. There has been widespread concern among locals regarding the availability of flu vaccine.
While the letter to the president provides few specific suggestions for assuring that available vaccinations make it to those who need them most, Schwadron suggested that the president use his authority to collect doses that have been shipped by Aventis but not yet administered to citizens. Then, he said, the government could assure that the vaccines are redistributed most effectively.
"If they were willing to address this, it could happen," Schwadron said. "All it would take would be a wink and the relevant agencies would scramble to work."
As of yesterday afternoon, White House spokesman Ken Lisaius had not yet heard about the letter, but said that the federal government is taking steps to address the vaccine shortage.
Lisaius said that medical vaccinations have been a priority for President Bush, citing $100 million requests for the Department of Health and Human Services in each of the last two budgets to provide year-round vaccinations and focus on more efficient vaccination technologies. Congress allocated only $50 million in the 2004 budget.
"It's imperative that we invest in the more efficient, reliable and modern methods for producing flu vaccines," Lisaius said.
Over the last four years, the number of companies providing flu vaccines to the United States has declined from four to two. CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said that strict regulations and low revenue streams have dissuaded companies from entering the vaccine market.
While Schwadron acknowledged that no Republicans signed the letter, he cautioned against viewing this in a political light, saying that Republicans are wary of any resistance toward the president's policies in the weeks before the election.
Lisaius reiterated that Congress had the ability to better fund the president's vaccination plan and that it did not allocate the money.
"Rather than playing partisan politics with a public health issue, this administration remains focused on taking immediate steps to address the matter," he said.
Patrick O'Reilly, program director at MassPRO, a nonprofit organization that monitors the health care received by Medicare patients, called the CDC recommendations Tuesday an "excellent" effort but said the federal government has a responsibility to be more involved both in the medical marketplace and in ensuring better public health.
Because it is impossible to determine how many doses will be necessary for each flu season, O'Reilly said, one way to ease corporate hesitancy to join the vaccine industry would be to subsidize companies for doses that are unused.
Regardless, O'Reilly said, this year's shortage must serve as a "warning shot."
"I hope the congressmen see this as an opportunity and don't turn away from it once flu season is over and it's not in the headlines anymore but continue to address this issue," he said. "As far as I know, flu seasons come every year."
Nantucket Author Given D.C. Tribute
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11-Nathaniel Philbrick told one friend, the editor of Nantucket Magazine, that he had to go to some book fair in Washington this weekend. To another friend, the longtime owner of a local bookstore, he didn't even mention the trip.
When each learned that Philbrick had been honored in the nation's capital as one of 70 distinguished authors at the Library of Congress and Laura Bush's National Book Festival Saturday, they described the humility as "classic Nat."
"He's an understater if there ever was one," said Mimi Beman, owner of Mitchell's Book Corner on Nantucket's Main Street, who has known Philbrick for more than a decade. She said his genuine passion for the island's history has prompted even the most territorial natives to embrace the Pittsburgh transplant.
"He's very modest and a serious historian," Beman said in a telephone interview. "That's all you need to be accepted by locals."
But Philbrick's acceptance by readers reaches beyond the depths of Nantucket Sound.
His book "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex," which chronicled the plight of the Nantucket whaling ship that inspired Herman Melville's "Moby Dick," won the 2000 National Book Foundation award in the nonfiction category.
At the festival, which last year drew an estimated 70,000 people to the National Mall, the 48-year-old author spoke about his most recent book, "Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery - The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842."
Released in 2003, the book carefully details a six-vessel global expedition that departed from the Pacific coast and contributed a wealth of information and artifacts to the nascent American government.
"This was really a space race," Philbrick said, describing competitive pressures that often pushed explorers into perilous situations. "This was an expedition beyond the scope of anything anyone had ever launched."
Audience delighted
During his remarks in the History and Biography Tent, Philbrick delighted the audience with rich language, hand gestures and intimate anecdotes about the book's adventures.
Nearing the climax of one tale, his tone quickly shifted from engaging to flat. "You're going to have to read the book to find out how that one ends," the accomplished sailor told them with a grin.
The audience burst into blended applause and laughter.
Philbrick, who also attended the festival in 2001, has earned a reputation as a tireless researcher and for his ability to pump life into historical events - a characteristic that in recent years has invigorated interest in nonfiction book writing.
"There's enough detail that you can get your teeth into the narrative," said David Brown, a Washington Post science writer who introduced Philbrick. "Because of that, it really challenges the reader to imagine how they might perform in one of these situations."
Stories shared
Philbrick signed books for an hour-long stream of admirers before turning the table over to PBS' Jim Lehrer, another of the festival's honorees, to do a segment for C-Span. Readers traded handshakes and smiles with Philbrick and shared stories about traveling to Cape Cod and the islands.
"His nonfiction comes alive," said Christian McBurney, a Washington lawyer originally from Kingston, R.I. "Seafaring is such a rich part of our history. His books - history books - read like novels."
Philbrick spent summers with his family in West Falmouth as a boy and met his wife, Melissa, there during the 1970s when they taught sailing together. They moved to Nantucket with their two children in 1986 when Melissa, a lawyer, took a job on the island.
Currently, Philbrick is working on a book about the 55 years between the 1620 sailing of the Mayflower and King Philip's War. While the topic captivates him, his muse remains on Nantucket.
"I get very patriotic when it comes to the history of Nantucket," Philbrick said. "People there have always had an exaggerated sense of themselves, but so much of its history has to do with what went on in the rest of the world."
