As the last week of early voting for the March 3 primary begins, please keep in mind the endorsements by our Conservation PAC (CPAC) and our partner national group, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund. And share them with your neighbors!
Our picks include seven state House candidates, four state Senate candidates, and Gov. Roy Cooper. CPAC will unveil another round of endorsements for the fall general election.
Meanwhile, LCV has made an important endorsement in the critical contest to replace U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis: former state Sen. Cal Cunningham. Tillis has an atrocious 7% lifetime voting score on LCV’s national Environmental Scorecard, ranking him among the most pro-pollution members of Congress, while Cunningham formerly served on our board of directors, and spent years working for a business which helps cities reduce their solid waste and landfilling.
“Cal Cunningham has been a key ally in the fight to protect our state’s air, water, lands, and healthy communities,” said our Director of Governmental Relations Dan Crawford. “North Carolinians are already suffering from climate-fueled extreme weather, and understand we need leaders who will act on climate to protect our families and our future. We know we can count on him to also protect our economic future — to stand against drilling off our coast and to invest in good-paying clean energy jobs right here in North Carolina.”
“As an Army veteran and environmental entrepreneur, Cal Cunningham knows firsthand the national security and economic threats posed by the climate crisis,” said LCV Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld. “Cal is committed to building a clean energy economy in North Carolina and across the country, and he has the experience to lead the way forward on solutions. That is why we are so thrilled to endorse Cal for the U.S. Senate.”
Cunningham is seen as the favorite to win the primary, but the race has seen an extraordinary twist in recent weeks. Seeking to protect Tillis and the Republican Senate majority by giving him a potentially less viable opponent in November, a shadowy political action committee (PAC) connected to U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is sinking millions of dollars into independent expenditure advertising on behalf of one of Cunningham’s opponents, state Sen. Erica Smith, who has disavowed the ads.
According to Federal Election Commission reports, and confirmed by national and state reporter investigations, Faith and Power PAC, a Super PAC formed earlier this year, has spent at least $3 million on TV ads and direct mail to boost Smith over Cunningham. Faith and Power PAC’s sole funder is the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) run by McConnell’s allies.
They’ve made no secret of their effort to interfere in the other party’s primary. “We stole a page out of Chuck Schumer’s playbook, and it’s been more successful than we could have imagined,” SLF president Steven Law said in a statement. Law is a former McConnell chief of staff and National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director.
It appears political dirty tricks are in full swing already, less than two months into this critical election year. Like other voters, environmental advocates must stay alert.
