Early Voting is in progress now. Remember to vote with the environment in mind! This week in CIB.
Campaign Watch: LCV Victory Fund Targets Hagan Re-Election
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Victory Fund announced last week that its total investment in the Hagan vs. Tillis race for US Senate will reach $4.2 million. That total includes $400,000 in television ads as well as direct mail and voter mobilization efforts. The LCVVF ads will remind voters of Tillis’s poor environmental record, and tie him to the billionaire oil baron Koch Brothers. LCV is NCLCV’s national allied organization.
You can take a look at LCVVF’s ad on Tillis here.
In other national coverage of the campaigns last week, the New York Times ran an interesting article noting the widespread attention to energy and related environmental issues in this year’s elections. From coal to climate change,energy is hot as an issue.
LCVVF’s attacks on the Tillis environmental record will come as no surprise to regular readers of CIB. Just last week, our coverage took notice of the severe deterioration in our state’s legislative voting performance on the environment since Tillis assumed a central leadership role.
Since Thom Tillis and Phil Berger took over the top leadership posts in the General Assembly (as House Speaker and Senate President Pro Tem, respectively), their chambers’ average grades on the NCLCV Environmental Scorecard of key votes plunged from 67% (House) and 69% (Senate) in 2009-2010, to 44% (House) and 38% (Senate) in 2013-2014.
The scoring collapse was particularly dramatic for members of Tillis’s party caucus. For House Republicans, the average score plummeted from 51% in 2009-2010 to 6% in 2013-2014, a 45% drop in average scores under Speaker Tillis’s environmentally unfriendly leadership.
Legislative Watch: Hero or Zero?
Was your state House or Senate member an environmental hero or zero? NCLCV’s 2014 Legislative Scorecard can provide the answer. Dan Crawford, NCLCV’s director of governmental relations, urges members to use the scorecard to find out whether it’s time to say “thanks” or “no thanks” to your legislative representatives – and then let them know what you think of their performance. Here’s our easy online tool to check your representatives’ scores and send them a note.
Judicial Watch: A “Virtual Sinkhole” for Environmental Laws
In case you missed our coverage last week, Facing South (Institute of Southern Studies) has published a thoughtful recap of the legal research study talking about the troubles of trying to get a pro-environment ruling out of the NC Supreme Court. More than that, as the article points out, things could get even worse on the court, depending on who wins four contests for Supreme Court justice in this election. Read Facing South’s article here. You can find CIB’s coverage from last week (“Campaign Watch: Judicial Elections and the Environment”) here.
Conservationists: Why It Matters to Vote
NCLCV Foundation’s canvassers star in a “Why It Matters” video urging North Carolinians to get out to vote in this critical election. These tireless workers have taken this video and other non-partisan voting information out to nearly 200,000 doors (and counting) around our state, encouraging voters to make their voices heard at the polls on or before November 4. NCLCV encourages our supporters and friends to share this video through email and social media, reminding family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers to vote this year with the environment in mind. Find the video and more information on our Foundation’s project site: NCVoterInfo.org.
Early voting in North Carolina runs through Saturday, November 1. Hours and locations vary from county to county. For details in your county, visit here.
That’s our report for this week.
