Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum ended a day of campaigning on the Space Coast with a briefing from local space industry leaders. "There's no place I will turn more attention to immediately than bringing businesses and jobs and opportunities to the Space Coast," promised McCollum, Florida's attorney general. "There just won't be."
McCollum spent part of the day talking to Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana and visiting the center's Space Station Processing Facility, where payloads are prepared for shuttle missions.
At the round table discussion in Cape Canaveral organized by the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, about a dozen the local space leaders explained the opportunity for KSC to diversify beyond launch operations, to not just fly payloads but to design and manage them and service the space station as a National Lab.
They explained the need to support commercial space, to attract aerospace and alternative energy jobs to replace thousands that will be lost when the shuttle program retires, and to help make the state's case in Washington, D.C.
McCollum, a former congressman, said he gets it, and would keep space and high-tech interests high on his list of priorities as the state's "chief economic development officer," despite a projected budget shortfall next year of more than $6 billion.
McCollum said he would do "whatever it takes to make sure that we are players in a commercial space program" and human spaceflight program that, despite a bleak short-term outlook, would remain a national priority.
Millionaire businessman Rick Scott, McCollum's main primary opponent, last weekend held a space-related meeting at Brevard Community College. The EDC earlier this year held a space briefing for Democratic candidate Alex Sink, the state's chief financial officer.
IMAGE: Bill McCollum, a Republican candidate for governor, toured Avera Motors in Rockledge on Friday morning and commented on his energy policy. (Rik Jesse, FLORIDA TODAY)
5 comments:
Whatever your politics might be...for those who remember....doesn't he look a great deal like HOWDY DOODY.....
5 PM Mondays thru Fridays...
Anyone think to ask Bill about his antics in 1980's which denied a Veterans Administration Hospital in Viera. Wake up Brevard.
This is what EDC does. Party, Show, Song and Dance. No results.
Then go to the EDC's website to see their results. Or better yet, meet with them in person. Educate yourself.
Yes I did and do frequently view EDC's website. They do a great job of patting themselves on the back, spending taxpayer money (in a non-profit way) of course. Wrote a letter to Bill Nelson disagreeing with him on NASA future, prepared an (expensive) brochure promoting Space Coast, (while patting themselves on the back). Hosting parties, politicians (who do not create jobs), coercing County Commissioners to provide corporate welfare to Lockheed Martin in Melbourne, so that EDC might take credit for creating (previously created) 100 jobs at that plant. Results?
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