Thursday, January 14, 2010

Should I Thank Restore the Delta?

This afternoon, Restore the Delta distributed a newsletter that said some very nice things about me. Thanks, but ...
did you have to do it in the same message where you insult Lester Snow?

I disagree with their comments about Lester Snow.

I do agree (and have said repeatedly) that DWR under Snow has failed to sponsor appropriate independent economic analysis of their proposals, including the peripheral canal. I hope he ignores the personal attack from Restore the Delta and still considers the substance of their request about economic analysis. No, I don't think I should lead it but I think it would be good if I were substantively involved.

Final Disclosure: I have had reporters ask me directly if I were a member of Restore the Delta (apparantly someone in the Fresno area was telling reporters that I was). For the record, I don't think I have even met Barbara Barrigan-Parilla (sorry if I forgot, Barbara) and am not a member of Restore the Delta. I have met Jane Wagner-Tyack several times, and exchanged a few emails with Barbara (some of them actually defending UC-Davis economists). I attended one of their workshops last winter at my own expense. They gave me a very pretty bumpersticker that I had on my car for several months. I scraped it off this summer when their rhetoric began to escalate, and I realized the sticker was no longer just a pretty picture with a nice slogan.

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