Recalling Studds, and other stuff
I was reading the obituary of former Massachusetts congressman Gerry Studds today and remembering one of the most honest and dedicated members of Congress I ever knew. I worked for a time, back in the 1980s, on the minority staff of the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, where Studds was chairman of the subcommittee on the Coast Guard. He was a powerful and active chairman and not being among his staff members, I guess I was a little afraid of him. He was all business but had a biting sense of humor and you had to respect his dedication to his constituents and to the legislation he championed. Among those bills was legislation to fund the cleanup of oil spills by tanker companies - who of course fought to maintain lofty limits of liability for themselves. Year after year those bills would be introduced, fought over, rewritten. Studds' staff members were among the most highly respected on the committee. They were smart, they knew how to get things done and they were intensely loyal to their boss. I often envied them a boss who was undoubtedly not making decisions based on the size of the checks from lobbyists or the pressure from his political party. We all knew he was gay - still a very shocking thing to many members of Congress and their staffs back then although I couldn't see why - but none of us working with him and his staff members really ever thought about it. Clearly his constituents didn't either. Even after the scandal of his having had an affair with a 17-year-old congressional page back in the 1970s surfaced, he was reelected by his constituents again and again. These were, by the way, not largely urban sophisticates. They were largely conservative Portuguese fishermen. But they knew Gerry had their best interests at heart, and could get things dne for them. And he did. I'm sad to hear that he has died.
So while I was back east last week, Katie Mintz and Ben Brown wrote some interesting stories about local election finances. I have to say that the Muelrath clients who are not reporting his help on their financial statements should be in trouble with state elections officials. For Muelrath to say that he doesn't charge anyone unless they win is, to me, a clear invitation to candidates to skirt campaign finance reporting. Candidates know it looks bad to have an outside the county high priced consultant working for you. So, they don't pay him until after the election and avoid reporting the transaction until it's too late for the voters to know about it. But I say even having him working for you, whether you pay him or not needs to be reported at the very least as an in-kind contribution. Also, if Jeannie Metcalf can't figure out how to report her campaign finances on time, will she be able to read and understand a city budget? A planning document?
Another interesting story about doctors in town ... I can attest that when my doctor, Peter Keegan, retired earlier this year - or was it late last year? - anyway, my husband and I would have been out of luck if Keegan hadn't been able to get some doctors from the Ukiah Primary Care Group to take his patients. Having said that, the doctor that agreed to take me, is still something of a phantom. I met with him once when he agreed to take me on as a patient and haven't seen him since. When I "go to the doctor" I only see a nurse practitioner. I happen to like the nurse practitioner I got - although she has now left the practice - but it makes me uncomfortable to have a nurse practitioner writing prescriptions for me and giving me new medications to take that my doctor has not even discussed with me. I assume that's the case for lots of people out there, but I miss the one on one relationship I had with Keegan.