In a Switch, Green Groups Are Outspending Their Industry Foes–And Winning – NationalJournal.com
Green group funding McAuliffe: ‘People who don’t believe in climate change should lose their jobs’
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National Journal excerpt:
At the beginning of 2013, the Washington, D.C.-based League of Conservation Voters scanned all elections taking place across the country, and chose three that it believed could have a major impact on global-warming policy. It then teamed up with a relatively new group, NextGen Climate Action, founded by California billionaire Tom Steyer, an Obama donor who has led campaigns to protect his home state’s cap-and-trade law, and to urge the president to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
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THE VIRGINIA RACE
In Virginia, green groups homed in on the governor’s race because the Republican candidate, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, had emerged as a leading national skeptic of the science of global warming, and of efforts to stop global warming policy.
Overall, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has vastly outraised Cuccinelli, hauling in $26 million in contributions to the Republican’s $16 million. Energy companies and environmental groups emerged as the biggest spenders – with green groups once again outspending fossil fuels.
Although McAuliffe, a former Democratic fundaiser, is hardly known as a green champion, environmentalists are backing him in order to ensure that Cucccinelli, who came under particular fire from the environmental community after launching a two-year probe into the work of former University of Virginia climate scientist Michael Mann, would lose. After the Democratic Governors’ Association, the largest single contributor to McAuliffe’s campaign is the Virginia chapter of the League of Conservation Voters, which donated $1.6 million to the Democrat. NextGen gave $674,000. The Sierra Club kicked in $144,000.
“People who don’t believe in climate change should lose their jobs,” says Casey, the NextGen consultant.
McAuliffe was happy to ride the wave of the green groups’ support. Although he’s never been outspoken about the need for climate policy–and at times waffled on whether he backed Obama’s climate regulations—his campaign did run TV ads bashing Cuccinelli for his probe of climate scientist Mann, and appeared with Mann on the campaign trail.
Related Links:
Exposed: Dem Virginia Guv Candidate Terry McAuliffe a Solyndra Insider – Watchdog.org reports: ‘Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and three top GreenTech advisers met with the key White House aide responsible for helping bankrupt solar-panel maker Solyndra win federal loans and high-profile presidential support, a Watchdog investigation has revealed.’
Dem Virginia guv candidate: Asking for Michael Mann e-mails is ‘mean-spirited hatefulness’
