BY JOHN GUSTAFSON
Aspiring Gadfly
Los Alamos

I agree with Candidate Stradling that housing is a significant issue in Los Alamos, especially housing that is affordable for people not making Lab salaries. I do, however, question his qualifications for successfully remedying the issue.

At the Chamber of Commerce business breakfast Stradling said, “I spent much of my career in Washington, DC with senior levels of the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and Department of State. I spent three years as an international negotiator with 26 nations, the Russians and all of the Warsaw Pact, Britain and all of the NATO Pact, and I have a lot of experience doing this.”

I note that the “this” in his quote has nothing to do with housing. Working with other bureaucrats is a plus, I guess, and maybe he understands a DOE organization chart better than most of us, but the direct application of his work experience to the situation in Los Alamos is a dubious proposition. I commend him on his self-confidence, but it feels a bit like Donald Trump touting his “successful” business experience and saying “he alone” can fix the nation’s woes.

Confidence or hubris? 

On a secondary note, it concerns me that none of the Republican candidates have been willing to state, per the recent letter from Skolnik and Hanson, whether they believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected and whether the Jan. 6 mob at the U.S. Capitol was an insurrection. Pretty simple questions and the lack of a response pretty clearly frames their position, or at least allows me to fill in the answer according to my biases (prove me wrong!). They also missed the boat on answering questions from the Pajarito Conservation Alliance. So many opportunities to share with us their thinking on important topics, and so much evidence they don’t care to do so.