PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

It’s very tempting to utter the words in this blog headline.

They should used to provide a lesson to U.S. Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez from New York. She has established one of the worst records ever in her short stint in Congress.

She is far better at making waves than making policy.

One of the best examples occurred last year when she railed against Amazon as it was planning to open a second headquarters location in New York with the lure of a huge investment abnd many news jobs for citizens who needed those jobs.

Her overblown rhetoric was one of the major factors that led Amazon to reconsider a New York location.

Now, the good news is that Ocasio-Cortez has an opponent in her bid for re-election – Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former CNBC anchor.

Caruso-Cabrera painted the choice better than I could when she penned a piece for the Wall Street Journal under the headline, “Why I’m Running Against AOC: The virus hit Queens hard. Those Amazon jobs could’ve helped.”

Here are excerpts of what she wrote:

“The Covid-19 crisis is especially dire in this New York City borough. Our neighborhoods, many of them in Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district, are called ‘the epicenter of the epicenter,’ and our hospitals ‘hot zones.’

“Dense neighborhoods with several generations living under the same roof suffered a rapid spread of the disease, producing 38,733 cases as of Sunday, the highest of the five boroughs.

“The economy has also been devastated. Tens of thousands are out of work because their jobs can’t be done from home. Before the pandemic, roughly 120,000 residents in the 14th Congressional District—which covers northwest Queens and part of the Bronx—worked in food service, hotels, arts and entertainment, retail or construction. Now, most of them are out of work. That’s over one-third of the district’s working population of 350,000.

“Restaurants and hotels had to shut down, but one massive employer has held on to staff and even is hiring tens of thousands more around the country: Amazon.

“For the people of Queens, that is a thumb in the eye. We had the chance to let Amazon open a second headquarters here with 25,000 new jobs. Economists debate the multiplier effect it would have had, with some saying there would be five new jobs, many of them in Queens, for every Amazon hire.

“Even the most skeptical economists put the figure at seven other jobs per 10 Amazon hires. In other words those 25,000 Amazon jobs would have meant at least 42,500 total jobs, and perhaps as many as 125,000. Govvernor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who backed the deal, put the number at 107,000.

“That’s why New York City’s minority residents were overwhelmingly in favor of Amazon. Tenants in the Queensbridge Houses, the largest housing project in the U.S. and the one closest to what would’ve been the new Amazon campus, pushed hard for the opportunities it would bring.

Nonetheless, several politicians campaigned against the project, and Amazon pulled out. The loudest opponent was Ocasio-Cortez.

The most egregious violation of truth occurred when Ocasio-Cortez uttered a now-famous phrase: New York shouldn’t, she said, “give Amazon $3 billion of taxpayer money to locate in the state.”

In truth, New York City and state would have received $27 billion in tax revenue over 10 years instead of $30 billion—a return of 800 per cent on the $3 billion tax break, which was just that..a tax break, not an expenditure.

“Once residents understood that subsidies is merely a discount on taxes rather than a cash payment to companies,” Caruso-Cabrera said, “they feel bamboozled, angry and betrayed by Ocasio-Cortez.

“Imagine how much better off Queens would be in this emergency if we could count on a strong and growing employer like Amazon—still hiring even now—to provide residents with jobs on the way to our recovery.”

I hope Caruso-Cabrera is right.

Plus, just think of all the tax money that would accrue to New York with all the new jobs held by residents who held those new jobs.

I served as deputy director of the Oregon Economic Development in the 1980s, a credential I used last year to criticize Ocasio-Cortez’ stupidity. The sad fact is that New York residents are paying the price for that stupidity.