When I last mentioned the FAA flight path issue, it was in connection to a local acoustical engineer’s assertion that the maps distributed by the Delaware County Council and Repubican candidates mischaracterized the available data.

Working on a pro bono basis, said engineer, Carr Everbach, advised the county workers who developed new, corrected maps a month ago. The maps show how much audible sound residents would likely experience should the FAA’s changes move forward. Despite the completion of the maps, and Prof. Everbach’s repeated requests, the maps were not made available until the end of last week–two days after the election. If you would like to see the maps, they are on the County web site. (Start by viewing the map called “Percentage change in noise levels.” Sones, rather than the decibels, are the relevant unit for we ground-dwelling beings.)

Given that Tom Gannon had essentially staked his entire re-election bid on his stance ont he FAA, it’s hard not to be suspicious. After all, his campaign had printed large signs plastered at polling sites and at area businesses that said “Keep Tom Gannon Fighting the FAA.” In order for Gannon’s gambit to work, he needed that data to be overwhelmingly bad. Rep. Gannon continued to claim that the potential noise increase would be upwards of 1000%–even in the final days before the election. Even though the error had been pointed out weeks before. It just doesn’t get people worked up into sufficient lather if you say that there might be 10-90% increases in noise levels. 90% is not 1000%, even though it may be damned loud.

Of course, I can’t prove that the release of the maps was quashed until after the election. But it sure has trouble passing the sniff test, doesn’t it?

I don’t want more planes flying over my head. And I expect my representatives to protect our local interests to the fullest extent possible. But I also don’t like flouting the truth about data. On Friday, I heard of a local resident in an adjacent ward who is putting her house for sale fearing the possibility of planes flying overhead. A full-scale real estate panic would be the worst possible outcome of fudged data.

Everybody knows how the rest of the slate went, but I know that I’m getting a lot of hits from people trying to get results on the Lentz-Gannon race (PA House 161).

Bryan Lentz has won. The margin was slim, a few hundred votes. All day long, people asked me what I thought was going to happen. I said that it would be a few hundred votes either way.

But it went the right way.

That’s it for now. I’m exhausted and have developed a tummy ache. But I’ll rest well knowing that we pulled off the clean sweep in our little neck of the woods.

Update: Pics!

I’ve been at the polling place in Nether Providence Township since 6:15 AM. It’s impossible to know how things are really going, but here’s how it feels on the ground in our little sliver of the Philly burbs:

In the morning, the Republican base was out. They’re always there. This is a majority Republican district by registration, and it’s a community that votes. Hopes of a disgraced and discouraged Republican base staying away from the polls are, to my senses, wishful thinking. This is a fairly affluent, mostly white suburb, still tied to a county GOP machine. Your mileage may vary.

There are plenty of Republicans who will gladly tell you for whom they’re splitting their tickets.

The Democrats who are showing up to the polls are often angry. They don’t like the sleezey way that their candidates were attacked. One lady railed on the local GOP commissioner for more than five minutes about the disgusting ads that our local state rep, Tom Gannon, lobbed at his Democratic opponent, Bryan Lentz (PA-House 161). Others were suspicious and mad about the awkwardness of our polling site. This is probably a reaction to the national mood. Our local judge of elections, though a member of the other party, plays it straight and clean. I don’t think you’d come across a more civil and fair election board anywhere. Both parties work together at our site to make it work right.

Dems are motivated, and Republicans are still coming out, although we don’t know how they’re splitting their tickets.

The one thing I’m sure of: the independents are with us. That’s the group that’s approaching the outside workers and saying, “I’m an independent, but I’m voting straight Democrat this time.” I’d be willing to bet that the registered “NP’s” are voting so overwhlemingly in our favor that if I were a Democratic operative, I’d play the numbers game and turnout independents, period.

If I were a Republican in this neighborhood, I’d be allergic to every NP voter unless I had a voter ID from a previous canvass already in pocket.

By 2:00, our precinct, which has over 900 voters, had already seen 370 walk through the doors. We have an additional 31 absentee ballots returned.

My son came in and helped his mom and dad vote. He made sure we did it just right.

Now we’re at home. Our polls are staffed well and its the slow hour. In an hour, I’m taking some Tylenol and heading back out.

I burst out laughing when I looked out the front window this morning. Our neighbor went a little crazy with some Rendell signs that he recovered from the trash pile at an event site. I knew he wasn’t a Lynn Swann fan, but this was a pretty wild statement.

I congratulated him when I saw him later. The Tom Gannon squad was out doing a lit-drop in our neighborhood. I watched as they skipped his house and ours. I told him those signs were a powerful signal, and joked that the angel of death would pass over his house this night.

There’s a serious need for better informatics in the election world. Maybe there’s a market out there for Voter Relation Management software. (Anybody want to start a company?)

There is no need for a voter who votes in EVERY election; who is an elected member of his party committee; who has written a letter to the editor against you or who has canvassed door-to-door with your candidate to be on your list for persuasion calls or election day reminders.

Today there were NINE pieces of mail in our mailbox on behalf of Tom Gannon and Bryan Lentz. Gannon always sends us double mailings because my wife kept her last name. So that makes six different items in one day. I find it all amusing, but I know that most voters are getting fatigued, if not downright annoyed.

The Delco Times made it’s endorsements in the state races last week. (Two parts, here and here.) I am very grateful that the local paper has given its nod to Bryan Lentz. The race may be razor close, so if the editors have the ability to persuade even a few dozen voters, this could be a critical difference.

Of the ten races, the paper endorsed six Republicans and four Democrats. Obviously, I’d have liked to see the paper break more cleanly from its reputation for caddying for the local machine, but they can at least claim to have been balanced. But when look at their endorsements with respect to incumbents, you can see where the real bias is:

• Sen. 26…incumbent (R)
• House 159…incumbent (D)
• House 160…incumbent (R)
• House 161…challenger (D)
• House 162…challenger (D)
• House 163…incumbent (R)
• House 164…incumbent (R)
• House 165…incumbent (R)
• House 166…incumbent (D)
• House 168…incumbent (R)

Supporting 80% of the delegation to Harrisburg is tantamount to blessing the status quo. I don’t think that the vast majority of Delco voters think that the Capitol building is a house in order.

While the paper did a good job at outlining the issues in the campaigns and noting the various missteps and outright blunders of some of the incumbents, more often then not, they failed to hold officials accountable. They tend to overpraise bringing-home-the-bacon (after all…everybody does that) and overlooked pretty substantive failings in policy.

Gannon basically was reprimanded for being a jerk in the campaign. But there was a long list of reasons he didn’t deserve to be re-elected, and that should have been enough to carry the day for Lentz.

For failing to exercise the full power of fourth estate, and for failing to take positions on policies over pork, I have to consider their endorsements marginal. I challenge them to do better next time.

* * *

Regardless of the outcome, Bryan has convinced me that he is a tremendous public servant. I am proud that I was able to help his campaign a little bit, and value my association with him. He’ll always have my support, and I’m very much hoping that he’ll need it–for his re-election bid in 2008.

This story seems to slipped past the local news media, but I thought it was worth noting.

For those who aren’t in the loop, there’s a big issue in Delaware County right now about proposed flight path changes for planes leaving the Philly airport. The new paths would allow the airport to increase the number of outgoing flights by allowing many planes to turn for their westward destinations right over central Delco. Currently, they are prohibited from doing so.

Although it is a federal issue under the jurisdiction of the FAA, no candidate has made more political noise about the issue than State Rep. Tom Gannon, PA-161. Through mass mailings, web pages, and meetings, Gannon has annointed himself the FAA gladiator, mostly by telling residents repeatedly that they are likely to experience up to 1000% increases in noise if the flight path changes are put into effect.

Swarthmore College Associate Professor of Engineering Carr Everbach is an area resident and a specialist in acoustical engineering. He has recently called into question how the FAA data has been presented. It turns out that while the noise levels experienced on the ground would obviously go up, the perceived noise level, which is best measured in units called sones, might double at worst.

As a person who lives right under the flight path, I don’t want a lot more planes flying overhead. I expect that ANY elected official for this district would help us to question and challenge the FAA plan. In fact, both of the area’s Republican incumbents (Gannon and Weldon) and the Democratic challengers (Lentz and Sestak) have indicated that they would do exactly that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s an issue for residents, but not an election issue.

But I also don’t want my elected officials hyping the situation out of control. Gannon runs the risk of creating a real estate panic. (And what will the flight path of all those residents be, if they think their houses might end up beseiged with noise in a year?)

Kudos to Swarthmore College student reporter Tally Sharma, who wrote the only piece I’ve found on the issue. From her article in the Swarthmore student newspaper, the Phoenix, here are a few of the choice quotes from Prof. Everbach:

Everbach said that he believed that this misrepresentation of information was merely a result of unawareness. “There will be some embarrassment,” he said. “I would like to believe that it’s a product of ignorance all around”

Everbach did say, however, that some people’s misapprehension of the situation might have allowed the issue to be blown out of proportion. “Based on their incorrect understanding, some politicians such as Tom Gannon and, to an extent, Curt Weldon have circulated [this information] at taxpayers’ expense,” he said.

Truthful telling of the facts is critical if we’re to make informed decisions as citizens. If Gannon were a decent fellow, he’d immediately and publicly correct his error. There’s a noise that I don’t expect to hear.

As my friend and future legislator Bryan Lentz aptly says: “Leaders should not incite fear; they should encourage solutions.”