I've been walking a fine line lately with political stuff on BCP, I realize. I hate to be a hypocrite by sparking a political debate, but I thought I'd throw this topic out there as it's pretty damned relevant, in hopes that we share some valuable information or insight.

I was reading the new AOPA Pilot mag, which has 4-pages of profiles of congresspeople who've had a record of supporting general aviation in the House or Senate. About 20% of them are Dems, the rest Republicans.

I really don't think it makes much sense to put too much onus on the presidential nominees for GA support. It was clear to me in the AOPA interviews with the candidates that everything each of them said sounded supportive of GA, yet vague. We're such a small interest group that we can probably count on getting screwed if push comes to shove and a funding bill comes up packaged with something else that Congress determines is too good to pass on.

The real players are our Reps and Senators. According to AOPA, Gordon Smith (Sen-R) of Oregon has a record of supporting GA in his voting, but exactly does that mean? Is it just 2 votes for these last two heavily publicized FAA funding bills, or is it a longer record?

You all know I'm a libtard, but I'll vote for Smith simply on the basis of GA support if I can't find anything informative on GA from his opponent.

If you have additional information about your state's candidates for Congress that isn't noted in that AOPA article, please let us know.

Play nice so we don't have to take this to Hot Air.

Did a quick search on Jeff Merkley (Democrat running against Gordon Smith in Oregon) and aviation and came up with this:

Merkley will work to eliminate the current Federal Aviation Administration moratorium on new kit evaluations, a policy that is hurting Oregon entrepreneurs. Oregon's growing aerospace industry, which provides 200 jobs in Deschutes County alone, is important to our economy and the new rules which would require inexperienced purchasers of kits to assemble more of their experimental aircraft without the help and expertise of the manufacturers puts those manufacturers and purchasers at greater risk. Should the new rules go into effect, it could result in the loss of hundreds of jobs, not just in Deschutes County, but throughout Oregon.

http://www.jeffmerkley.com/2008/09/growing_rural_o.php

-- K.

Oregon180 wrote:Did a quick search on Jeff Merkley (Democrat running against Gordon Smith in Oregon) and aviation and came up with this:

Merkley will work to eliminate the current Federal Aviation Administration moratorium on new kit evaluations, a policy that is hurting Oregon entrepreneurs. Oregon's growing aerospace industry, which provides 200 jobs in Deschutes County alone, is important to our economy and the new rules which would require inexperienced purchasers of kits to assemble more of their experimental aircraft without the help and expertise of the manufacturers puts those manufacturers and purchasers at greater risk. Should the new rules go into effect, it could result in the loss of hundreds of jobs, not just in Deschutes County, but throughout Oregon.

http://www.jeffmerkley.com/2008/09/growing_rural_o.php

-- K.

Big Deal

Vanns kits are grandfathered in. So on that one little point he isn't doing anything for all the money he wants to spend. I didn't realize your state was in need of so many more roads and airports.