I had occasion to interact with a candidate for Congress today, Jess Phoenix, on Twitter. The interaction left me curious, and I decided to look for some additional information on the person. It was the result of a debate challenge to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. FYI, Zinke has a BS in Geology, and two unrelated advanced degrees that he obtained while serving his country as a Navy SEAL.
Jess Phoenix is one of several candidates running for Congress in California’s 25th district. Steve Knight is the Republican incumbent. Four people, including Phoenix, are running for the nomination of the Democratic Party. In California’s odd system, all the candidates, Knight and the four Democrats, appear on the ballot in a primary election to be held June 5, 2018. The top two vote getters will vie against each other in the November election. (Barring ties, lack of a majority, etc. Lots of arcane election rules)
“California’s 25th Congressional District is located in the southern portion of the state and includes part of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.” Clinton carried the district by six points in 2016, while incumbent Knight beat his Democratic challenger 53% to 47%. It was considered a battleground district and will most likely be one for the 2018 election. Phoenix was recruited to run against Knight because of his position on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. He votes with the President’s agenda nearly all the time.
Here is how Phoenix describes herself:
Jess is a volcano scientist and nonprofit founder running to represent the people of California’s 25th Congressional District.
ABD means “all but dissertation”. She has completed all the course work necessary for her doctorate and just needs to finish and present her dissertation.
And, from IMDB:
Wait! That is NOT the same last name. No, it is not. Jess Phoenix is married to an IT professional named Carlos Pelaez.
From Earth, December 2017:
Five years ago, Phoenix and her husband Carlos (both of whom changed their last names to Phoenix from Peláez, which they kept as a middle name, because they wanted something easier to pronounce) leveraged their passion for education and science to found Blueprint Earth, a nonprofit organization that brings scientists together with students to collaboratively inventory the biological and physical traits of selected areas, and to document the connections between the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere to create a “blueprint” of that ecosystem.
Her not-for-profit is called Blueprint Earth. According to Guidestar, it received its IRS ruling in 2017. Another site says November 2013. Her LinkedIn site states that the organization was founded in 2013. It appears to be organized as a 501(c)(4).
Its current project is called Mission Mojave.
Mission Mojave is Blueprint Earth’s first project. We are working with scientists, engineers, and students to catalog one square kilometer of the Mojave Desert. The goal is to create a blueprint of the geology, biology, hydrology, and atmosphere to understand how they all interact. Once we have all of the data, we will test our blueprint by recreating that section of desert, including the spring, the toads, the bighorn sheep, etc. in a giant warehouse nearby.
One square kilometer equals 10,763,910 square feet. According to LiveScience, the largest building in the world by footprint is the Boeing Everett Factory in Everett, Wash. That clocks in at 4.3 million square feet. I would suggest that
recreating that section of desert, including the spring, the toads, the bighorn sheep, etc. in a giant warehouse nearby
is unlikely in the extreme. At best, all of the data points will be crowded together in a way that is far different than the reality in the desert.
Phoenix is advertised as having pledged to take no funds from the oil industry. Perhaps this will make up for the carbon footprint she generated by traveling to Mongolia to participate in a horse race.
The major difference between Phoenix and Zinke seems to be over climate change. Neither is a climatologist. Both rely on statements provided by scientists who are more academically and experience qualified. I have not located any published research with her name on it, possibly because I do not know her maiden name. There does appear to be a couple of references to conference presentations or abstracts, which would be typical of a Masters level student.
She professes a laundry list of other beliefs consistent with left wing Democratic politics. At this time she is running a distant third to two other Democrats in funds raised.
She seems to be a media scientist, in the mode of a Bill Nye or Neil deGrasse Tyson. Nye has a BS in engineering and Tyson’s doctorate is in astrophysics. Both appear frequently to opine on topics that they have little or no experience or study in. Parroting others does not a scientist make. Phoenix did make an appearance on Discovery’s Shark Week, which probably is equal in nerd points to Nye and Tyson’s appearances on The Big Bang Theory.
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