Friday, October 18, 2002

 

Rhymes with "why us?"

It is not exactly news to anyone in Colorado but the campaigns there have become quite nasty. Democrats in several races are widely thought to have a shot, in dramatic contrast to recent elections. Luckily for the Republicans there, they can always count on help from the reporters at the Rocky Mountain News.

In case you haven't been following the races there, there are competitive (Federal) races in the Senate, the newly created 7th district, the 4th (depends on what polls you believe), and, some would argue, the 2nd (seems much less likely). For various reasons, including the balance of power in the US Senate and the woeful environmental record of the incumbent in the Senate and consistent anti-environment members from the 4th, the Sierra Club has included CO in one of its 10 targeted states for this election. Interestingly, this has prompted Senator Allard to embark on what has to be the most brazen greenwashing campaign of this election cycle. Allard's claim that he "has the strongest record of protecting Colorado's environment of any Senator in Colorado's history" has caused outrage in the environmental community and has almost certainly led to raising the profile of the race among enviros. Not to unduly belabor the point but Allard's quote that he "has the strongest record of protecting Colorado's environment of any Senator in Colorado's history" must be fairly galling to former Senator Tim Wirth, and environmental protection pioneer, and, well, every other Senator from Colorado. I'm pretty sure that I can empirically justify the statement that a ham sandwich would have been better for the environment as Senator from Colorado than has been Mr. Allard.

What has recently caught my attention though, is an article in the Rocky Mountain News alleging that the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Sierra Club threatened a local chapter officer, and Green Party candidate in the 7th district, Dave Chandler, for complaining to the media that the Club endorsed the Democratic candidate instead of him.

As far as the actual substance of the conflict between the RM Chapter and Mr. Chandler, the article subsequently reveals (in the 17th paragraph, natch) there isn't much there. The "threat" consisted of options to either sign a statement that Mr. Chandler violated club policy by going to the media and state he'll never do it again, or to step down from his position until after the election. Mr. Chandler maintains the alternative was reprimand and removal from his position. Mr. Casini, the Chapter Director who supposedly delivered the threat, denies there was any threat and says there will be no attempt to oust Mr. Chandler. A quick search of the Sierra Club policies reveals this statement; "Sierra Club is one corporation. Unlike many other environmental organizations, our Chapters and Groups are not independent. Chapters, Groups and "National" do not take contradictory public positions on issues." (If you want to see more, look here) So, Mr. Chandler has unambiguously violated the rules and was apparently informed of this by the Chapter Director. Where's the story? Does anyone really care about the insider machinations of the RM Region of the Sierra Club? No, the story the reporter wants out of this is revealed in the lead-in; "a member of the Sierra Club is wondering if those who say the club is simply a shill for the Democrats are right."

And the reporter certainly got a fabulous quote from Mr. Chandler, one that could have been written by the Republican National Committee (they've been trying to sell this message for years); "Is the club even more aligned with the Democrats than I suspected? ... This seems bigger than me. What's going on with the Sierra Club?"

The reporter then goes on to try and back up this statement with a couple examples. 1) The club has endorsed Rep. Mark Udall (D) over Sandy Hume (R) though Mr. Hume is an officer in the Boulder County Sierra Club, and; 2) the Club "refused to take a stand" in a CO State House race where a Green Party candidate and local group officer is challenging a Republican. All in support of the painfully disingenous premise that if one is a locally elected officer of a local chapter, the Sierra Club must somehow justify any endorsment of another candidate.

Not that there aren't logical reasons for these examples. In the case of the State House race, for example, there are 65 State House races, Sierra Club has endorsed 17 candidates. So that makes this one of 48 State House races where the Sierra Club is simply choosing not to weigh in, including many where Democrats are on the ballot. It does not exactly strike me as a damning indictment of the Club's political committee that they are not paying much attention to a race pitting a minor party candidate against an incumbent in a district so heavily Republican that the Democrats can't even field a candidate.

The Udall v. Hume case is even more ridiculous. Hume might be an officer (I can't find anything on Sierra Club's website, or anywhere else, to verify it) in the Sierra Club but there is little else available to give one the impression that environmental protection is much of a priority for him. There is almost nothing on his website about the environment, and he simply has not made an issue of it in his campaign. And with good reason; if the primary voter concern is environmental policy, Udall will kill him. Beginning with his family legacy as the son of environmental champion Morris Udall, continuing through his years in charge of Colorado Outward Bound, and his two terms on the US House Resources Committee, Udall has compiled a record of environmental protection that ranks among the top in the House. This has led to a 100% lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, and 2002 endorsements from LCV, Friends of the Earth, WildPac (dedicated to pro-wilderness candidates), and, as mentioned above, Sierra Club. I don't really know how strongly Mr. Hume feels about environmental issues, but the only vote I can be sure that he will cast, if elected, would offset any 10 pro-environment votes he may cast after. He will vote to retain Rep. Hastert as Speaker of the House, and the rest of what is almost certainly the most anti-environmental leadership group to run the House in the last 40 years.

So there's some evidence that there may be other reasons besides being a "shill for the Democrats" for the Sierra Club to choose candidates other than Sierra Club members. But do they endorse any Republicans? You wouldn't know from the article, but it turns out the answer is yes. Admittedly not many, but I'll argue (another time, perhaps) that it has a lot more to do with who's leading the Republican Party than any pre-disposition towards Democrats. Heck, they endorse Connie Morella (who is certainly a committed enviro) despite the fact that she is facing a Democrat who professes to be equally environmentally committed. Does Sierra Club endorse any Green Party candidates? None I can find. Could this be the source of Chandler's "snubbing?" Carl Pope, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, has eloquently stated on several occasions that third-party candidicies are self-defeating for enviros. In 2000, he produced a long piece on this issue which includes this snipett, "If voting is viewed strictly as a mirror of personal preference, then third parties-and fourth, fifth, and twenty-seventh parties-are well and good. But voting is also about selecting a government that will make a practical difference in the world, and the reality of third-party candidates in national winner-take-all systems like those in the United States or Britain is that they strengthen their enemies at the expense of their friends."

Whether or not you agree with Mr. Pope about the consequences of third-party candidacies in the US (I do, but more on that another time), it certainly seems like a likely explanation for the Sierra Club's endorsement in this case. But you'd never know that from the RMN article. Instead, amazingly, you get the spin from the Wayne Allard camp that this should be a "wake-up call for the rank-and-file membership." Which leads me to an important question. Why on earth would there be a quote from the Senate Candidate who is being targeted by the Sierra Club in this article (in case you are curious, there are no quotes from any Democratic candidates in the article)? Allard's spokesman adds absolutely no insight on the situation and their sole interest in this whole affair is to try to undermine the legitimacy of the Sierra Club's endorsement of Allard's opponent. And that, it would appear to me, is the entire point of this article.

So I have two questions.

1) Doesn't Mr. Chandler's quote indicate he is more interested in hurting the Democrat in his race than in talking about environmental issues? After all, attacking the Sierra Club doesn't exactly help his candidacy.

2) Any theories on where the reporter might have gotten this story in the first place?

posted by Mike 6:23 PM

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