Last week, we were excited by the results of Longmont’s referendum, but we sure weren’t alone. The Washington Post’s Brian Fung wrote, “Big Cable may have felled Seattle’s mayor, but it couldn’t stop this Colo. project.”
Our regular readers know that Comcast succeeded in defeating the Longmont measure in 2009 but the electoral would not be swayed by false promises and lies the second time in 2011. This year’s proposal asked voters to approve a revenue bond for $45.3 million to speed up a planned expansion, which voters approved 2:1.
Contrary to past experience, Comcast and allies did not launch a full frontal assault in Longmont this year to sway the vote. Fung’s article looks at the math for a possible explanation:
There are 27,000 households in Longmont. Even if the city were to connect all of the eligible homes [close to the fiber ring] to its existing fiber network overnight, it would still reach only 1,100 residences. Cable companies therefore spent over half a million dollars [in 2011] trying to prevent four percent of city households from gaining access to municipal fiber on any reasonable timescale. That’s around $600 a home, or six months’ worth of Xfinity Triple Play.
Even if the cable companies decide it was not worth the fight in Longmont, they have shown repeatedly that they have cash, will travel. Feung’s article describes another 2009 election in which the cable industry spent large to prevent public investment in fiber:
In North St. Paul, Minn., a 2009 ballot measure to let muni fiber move forward was defeated by a resounding 34-point margin. Opposition to the fledgling network, PolarNet, was led by the Minnesota Cable Communications Association. In the weeks leading up to the vote, it and other opposition groups spent some $40,000 campaigning against the measure. MCCA alone contributed more than $15,000 to the effort over the same period.
Comcast also exhibits its willingness to spend money to seat industry-friendly candidates. We reported on coverage in Seattle where Comcast contributed heavily to Sen. Ed Murray who won the Mayoral race. Outgoing Mayor Mike McGinn’s policy initiative to bring better Internet access to the community threatened Comcast’s position. Comcast denies it, but speculation abounds that McGinn’s position on broadband motivated Comcast’s direct and PAC contributions to Murray.
From the Fung article:
But what Longmont’s experience does show is how large the gulf is between an incumbent industry that can spend money on a massive scale to promote its interests and advocates of municipal fiber that often lack deep-pocketed allies. Those odds made the triumph of Longmont’s municipal fiber backers all the more remarkable.