Thursday evening's debate at the Kodiak High School auditorium, on fisheries issues, featuring five of the six candidates for Alaska's at-large U.S. Congressional seat, was well covered and solidly produced by KMXT public radio. The moderator and journalist questioners were more on-the-ball than I had expected. The candidates were reasonably prepared for most kinds of questions they might have expected.
I missed all but the last few minutes live. I teach at Eagle River Community college on Thursday evenings, so I was describing the end of the Romantic period and beginning of the 20th century in classical music to 30 young people, as the debate occurred. But KMXT had audio of the debates up early today, so I listened to it in snips as I could.
The clear losers were Don Young and Sean Parnell. Young, partially because he had to do very well to keep from losing ground, partially because you could sense no feeling of loyalty in the audience toward him. Nobody clapped for anything Young said all evening.
Parnell, because he wasn't there and hasn't yet released a statement on issues that came up.
Jake Metcalfe sort of stood by himself as neither a loser nor a winner. He had to remind the audience four times that he's a "real"Alaskan. His grasp of fishery issues was clearly the weakest of any candidate on the stage. His litany that processes solve problems as long as they're fair and transparent, whether the problem is the privatization of common resources, alternative energy development, or Pebble Mine, fell totally flat. When he tried to be passionate, he came off - as he often does - as a nice guy. Nothing more, nothing less.
Diane Benson, sandwiching her Kodiak trip between a successful set of New York City area fundraisers and the conclusion of filming her story of Elizabeth Peratrovich in Juneau, was honest in explaining a lack of depth of knowledge on commercial fishing problems. She wasted valuable time by asking Ethan Berkowitz a question about maritime issues when Berkowitz was in the State House, that couldn't have concerned Ethan. Benson handled a couple of the questions better than the other candidates - those of educating young people to take jobs at sea through our university system, and the importance of rebuilding our international relationships after eight years of the Bush administration's backing away from any multi-lateralism.
Ethan Berkowitz connected with the audience best of the three Democratic Party candidates. His passion in some of the areas resonated more than anyone there with the audience, getting him the most laughs of the evening. His opening and closing statements were those of a polished politician. He was the most vehement on decrying the privatization of fishing resources as a detriment to coastal communities.
Gabrielle LeDoux clearly won the debate. She's been to far more FishCom affairs than all the other candidates combined. She had the home court advantage. Her solutions to problems showed a long-standing acquaintance with Western Alaska fishery history.
More importantly, she was openly critical of Don Young on several occasions. And she tied his failures directly to the event's agenda, which none of the other Young opponents managed to do. Young even tipped his hat to her on that.
LeDoux had to attack. She's fighting a battle to keep her fundraising machine going now that it is competing with the Palin insurgency's least revolutionary or evolutionary figure, soon-to-be ex-Lt. Governor Sean Parnell.
How hard Gabrielle pushes during the remaining days of the legislative session when she's back in the Juneau fish bowl with Parnell could be a fascinating story. It might be interesting to see if she can manage to finesse the Palin administration into soon revealing whether Parnell was encouraged to run against Young in hopes that he beat Young, or to get him out of the administration. I've got a hunch Parnell's just been finessed by Palin, and doesn't know it yet.
5 comments:
A very interesting analysis!
I agree that Berkowitz and LeDoux did the best.
I was actually disappointed in how Jake did -- I expected more from him than "I'll listen to everybody."
I don't think Benson lost any ground despite some deer-in-the-headlights moments (except among some fishermen who might not have voted for her anyway).
Don Young was Don Young.
Among the small and midsize communities of the Peninsula and Aleutian Islands - Sand Point, King Cove, Nelson Lagoon, Cold Bay, False Pass, Akutan - there has been a collective, negative impact due to the sequence of Limited Entry, the migration of permits, the loss of vessel ownership, the imposition of rationalization plans, the decline of multi-gear boats, and the resulting dominance of the processors, both in the packing communities and on the water. The result has been severe especially for traditional Aleut fishing families. I think Aleut families forced out of the fisheries would describe it all as economic genocide. The debate missed these communities and families, missed the situation they find themselves in, and missed the impact of the Stevens family in driving these proud Alaskan families under.
Frankly, I thought the debate was very poorly produced by KMXT. In fact, it was not a debate, as the participants were never able to engage each other in a full contesting of the issues. The one-minute limit on answers was ridiculous. The electronic cutoff of the microphones was rude, both to the distinguished participants and to the audience. I thought the moderator was rude to Diane Benson's question - a better moderator would have counseled to keep the next question to fisheries, rather than embarassing her. I hoped for a far better airing of commercial fisheries issues, and for a full exchange between the participants. I heard neither.
Thank you for your coverage of the event, Phillip. Gabrielle LeDoux did better than the others, but failed to fully portray the tragedy and the criticality of the current situation for those outlying fishing communities. In Don Young's arrogant answer, of "Take your concerns to the North Pacific Fisheries Management Count" (or, don't bother me with your problems) lies the loss of hope that I know those families heard Saturday night.
pb,
What a thoughtful comment! I was hoping the impact of fishery changes on small communities would come up. It didn't.
I listened to the section where Diane Benson gets curtly dealt with again today, and, you're right. I didn't pick up on that earlier.
I also heard more comments from the audience when listening to parts of the debate on a real speaker set-up. Like the guy interjecting to Young, "Answer the question!"
Well, Polarbare, it wasn't a debate. It was a forum. Grab your Websters to learn the difference.
Two, if the moderator hadn't cut the mics they'd still be there. Time limits are essential for orderly discourse. Of course that's not what you were looking for, but you don't seem to care there was a 2-hour time limit to get everyone's comments. Grow up and expect something other than a fist fight.
Third, all the candidates knew for months, yes MONTHS, that the forum was on FISHERIES ISSUES ONLY. Benson's straying from that was unacceptable and unfair to the audience expecting discourse on fisheries issues.
And, Fourth, it was NOT produced by KMXT. It was a production of the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce.
I'd say get your facts straight before you mouthed off, but then you'd have zero to say because you were wrong on every thing you said.
ishmael: Yours is a bureaucrat's response, of someone aiming to exert control rather than provide information. Forum or debate, no full exchanges between participants were permitted, leaving issues hanging. No similar debates on public radio or on public television in Alaska have suffered from such rude and unnecessary strictures, even during the recent, highly contested governor's campaign. Don Young gave similar responses in tone, saying in effect, "Don't come to me with your problems - go to the North Pacific Management Council"; arrogant, just like the debate.
My facts are just fine. And the facts are, the voices of those hurting the worst from poor commercial fisheries management were not heard.
You may have the last word, ishmael, out of respect for Phillip's forum.
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