High-speed rail a governor's-race litmus: Brown for, Whitman against massive plans facing critical stage
Source: MIke Rosenberg/San Mateo County Times
Which side of the California high-speed rail debate are you on? The answer could help determine the state's next governor and, in turn, the fate of a project that has divided the Bay Area.
Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate and former eBay CEO, said through a spokeswoman on Friday she "believes the state cannot afford the costs associated with high-speed rail due to our current fiscal crisis."
She lives in the wealthy town of Atherton, which is ground zero for the anti-bullet train movement because of concerns about the tracks that would run through the tony community.
Jerry Brown, the Democratic nominee and state attorney general, started the push for high-speed rail in 1982 as governor and thinks the current plan is a "bold" one "we should find a way to make work," his spokesman said Friday. Brown lives in Oakland, which is not near the proposed train route.
The $43 billion San Francisco-to-Los Angeles project -- planned to run along Caltrain tracks in the Bay Area -- is due to start construction in 2012. Key decisions on the rail line plan will be made in 2011, after the new governor takes office in January.
The governor must approve the California High-Speed Rail Authority's annual spending plan and appoint five of its nine board members. The board still has to decide which company will make the trains, whether the route will be above or below ground and how the state will pay for it.
The candidates' stances on high-speed rail could help shape the election, and the choice of governor could affect how, when and whether the project gets built.
Experts said the high-speed rail issue could be drowned out by the state's budget mess, and education and unemployment woes, but the candidates' opinions on high-speed rail could be seen as a microcosm for the disparity between the two.
And for those who live in cities where the tracks will be, or for those hungry for jobs, the difference of opinion should win votes for one candidate or the other, political consultants said.
"For the voter that looks at both candidates and fails to discern much of a difference between them, this could be a tiebreaker," said Larry Gerston, a San Jose State political science professor.