Sound Off: February

Community Comments

In Memoriam, Left Out, Hitting the Target and Must-Reading

CAN ANYONE REPLACE CONGRESSMAN MATSUI?
The business world has coined a phrase to describe the strategy of competing and cooperating at the same time: It’s “co-opetition.” And this coin has two sides: Co-opetition is learning to compete without destroying the whole pie, while learning to cooperate without having your lunch eaten. Co-opetition can, should be and sometimes is applied to the political world as well.
    In fact, over the last several years, the congressional delegation representing the greater Sacramento region (Representatives John Doolittle, Doug Ose, Mike Thompson and the late Robert Matsui) became adept at fighting for projects that benefited their individual districts and supporting each other’s proposals. 
    They all worked to bring additional flood protection and water resources to our entire region; a new bridge at Folsom Dam; additional light-rail service to Elk Grove and Folsom; critical infrastructure improvements to assist in the construction of Raley Field in West Sacramento and the list goes on and on.
    In an increasingly competitive world with shrinking state and federal resources, it is critical that the state and federal officials who represent the Sacramento region apply the “co-opeti- tion” model to their work if our region is to successfully compete with Southern California, the Bay Area and other regions around the country.
    With the tragic loss of Congressman Robert Matsui in January, whichever politician survives the special election to serve in his place — for the long-term success of our economy — must govern as a statesman, work with representatives Doolittle, Herger, Lungren and Thompson and represent not just the city of Sacramento, but the region as a whole, just as Bob did.

Continued...

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