ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—The choice is clear for a coalition of environmental groups targeting three U.S. Senate races: who’s for alternative energy and who’s connected to big oil in an election issue that’s already on voters’ minds.
The coalition announced Thursday it would weigh in on Senate races in New Mexico, Colorado and New Hampshire, hoping to help elect Democrats in what Ivan Frishberg of Environmental America calls a step toward “the greening of the United States Senate.”
The groups plan a combination of ads and door-to-door conversations to back Rep. Tom Udall of New Mexico; his cousin, Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado; and former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire—races considered toss-ups.
Some of the same groups successfully targeted Republican Rep. Richard Pombo of California in 2006, and said this year, they want to elect a veto-proof pro-environmental Senate majority.
They spent more than $1.7 million in helping elect Democrat Jerry McNerney over Pombo, but wouldn’t say how much they plan to put into the three races this year. They also wouldn’t rule out adding other races, Senate or otherwise.
The seats are open in New Mexico and Colorado; Shaheen faces incumbent Republican Sen. John Sununu in a reprise of their 2002 matchup in New Hampshire.
New Mexico’s Senate seat opened up after Republican Sen. Pete Domenici announced he would retire. All three of New Mexico’s House members are running for the seat. Udall will face the winner of June’s Republican primary—Heather Wilson or Steve Pearce—in November.
In Colorado, Mark Udall and former Rep. Bob Schaffer, a Republican, are campaigning to replace retiring Republican Wayne Allard.
The coalition’s campaign will target “persuadable voters” who are skeptical and turn to outside organizations for information to back up their choices, said Cathy Duvall of the Sierra Club, one of the organizations in the coalition.
She said oil companies have come to symbolize what’s wrong with Washington, and it’s easy to make that link when oil companies report record profits at the same time taxpayers are subsidizing those companies and paying increasing prices at the gas pump.
Even when voters list the economy as the most important issue, they talk about the price of gas or heating and cooling their home, said Gene Karpinski of the League of Conservation Voters. And, he said, candidates frame the argument in terms of a clean energy policy being good for the economy.
In New Mexico, the first volleys have been fired.
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has launched television ads against Wilson and Pearce, citing their campaign contributions from oil, gas and mining companies and their votes against legislation supported by environmentalists. The Sierra Club, in ads in New Mexico and eight other states, is highlighting the successes of renewable energy production and asking voters to consider the economic and environmental impacts of policies that depend on fossil and foreign fuels.
A spokeswoman for Wilson’s campaign, Whitney Cheshire, said of the coalition: “Special interest groups like these have spent millions trying to defeat Rep. Wilson but she has always prevailed against her Democratic opponents.”
Brian Phillips, a spokesman for Pearce’s campaign, said the congressman “has an outstanding record on energy and the environment,” and dismissed the coalition as “organizations that are trying to get Democrats elected.”
Karpinski said members of the coalition already have endorsed seven Republican candidate in races outside the targeted Senate campaigns.
The coalition argues that there’s broad support in all three states for policies that protect air and water, and said it wants its message out before voter fatigue sets in.
“Voters see this election as a hugely important election. … While we have no doubt voters will be getting a lot of mail, seeing a lot of people knocking on their doors,” they want information to help them make choices, Duvall said.
Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, said the 2006 race proved that “anti-environmental extremism … to promote special interests is a loser in the ballot box.”
