{"id":3140,"date":"2008-04-24T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-24T21:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/environmental-groups-join-forces-to-elect-udall\/"},"modified":"2008-04-24T15:21:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-24T21:21:00","slug":"environmental-groups-join-forces-to-elect-udall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/environmental-groups-join-forces-to-elect-udall\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental groups join forces to elect Udall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Several national environmental groups are joining forces this year to try to elect Tom Udall<\/a> and two other Democrats to the U.S. Senate, an unprecedented level of coordination that aims to build off their success in 2006 in ousting a U.S. House member. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The news that the groups picked Udall as one of three candidates they will focus on electing further indicates the national importance of New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>\u2019s U.S. Senate race.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The groups that will join forces to elect Udall are the Sierra Club<\/a>, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund<\/a>, League of Conservation Voters<\/a>, Clean Water Action<\/a> and Environment America<\/a>. They\u2019re also rallying behind Udall\u2019s cousin, Mark Udall<\/a>, who is running for an open Senate seat in Colorado<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>, and former N.H. Gov. Jeanne Shaheen<\/a>, who is trying to unseat Sen. John Sununu<\/a>, R-N.H.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ivan Frishberg, the national political director for Environment America, said in a conference call with reporters today that many measures backed by environmental groups passed the House in 2007 only to fall approximately three votes short of the 60 needed in the Senate to stop the minority from filibustering votes.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThis election is an opportunity to change that,\u201d he said. While the environmental groups don\u2019t always agree on every issue, he said they can work together because they agree that \u201cthe key first step is the greening of the United States Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The groups gained national attention in 2006 when they combined resources to invest more than $1.7 million in the defeat of then-House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo<\/a>, R-Calif. He was a 14-year incumbent whose defeat was seen as unlikely, as he represented a conservative district, but he ended up losing to Democrat Jerry McNerney<\/a> by six points.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an unprecedented success\u2026 in defeating our No. 1 target,\u201d said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters. \u201cWe\u2019re here today to build on that success.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, that will mean television and radio ads in English and Spanish, mailers, and an extensive get-out-the-vote effort that will include knocking on \u201cliterally hundreds of thousands of doors,\u201d said Cathy Duvall, national political director for the Sierra Club. The goal, she said, is \u201cto make sure that we don\u2019t end up with another Pete Domenici<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Udall is joined in the Senate race by the other two U.S. House members from New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, Republicans Steve Pearce<\/a> and Heather Wilson<\/a>. Duvall called it \u201cone of the great Senate races this year,\u201d saying \u201cthe contrast between the candidates could not be more clear\u201d on energy policy. She said Udall favors a shift to renewable energy, while Pearce and Wilson have repeatedly sided with the Bush Administration in opposing such a shift.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In N.M., the attack has already begun<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The attack on Pearce and Wilson has already begun. The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund is currently on TV and radio<\/a> attacking Pearce and Wilson and plans a canvass of homes on Saturday. The Sierra Club has been actively campaigning for Udall for the last month, and the League of Conservation Voters plans to open an office in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> spokeswoman Whitney Cheshire said it won\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial interest groups like these have spent millions trying to defeat Representative Wilson, but she has always prevailed against her Democrat opponents in November,\u201d Cheshire<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pearce spokesman Brian Phillips said the congressman \u201chas an outstanding environmental record.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThese groups are partisan political organizations intent on electing Democrats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

The Udall campaign declined to comment on today\u2019s news beyond saying \u201cwe\u2019ll let the endorsement speak for itself.\u201d Udall has frequently said on the campaign trail that he is running for Senate because he grew tired of environmental and other proposals being passed by the House and dying in the Senate.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The representatives of the environmental groups said they aren\u2019t focused only on electing Democrats. Getting a 60-vote majority in the Senate will include supporting environment-friendly Republicans, they said. While each environmental group involved in supporting the two Udalls and Shaheen may get involved in other races around the nation, those are the only three candidates they will jointly work to elect.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, said the defeat of Pombo was \u201ca pretty startling victory.\u201d He said he is confident the groups will have similar success this year because of their early level of coordination, willingness to share research with each other and focus on an integrated, well-funded campaign that stays on message.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

They\u2019re hoping to prove, he said, that \u201canti-environmental extremism\u2026 is a loser at the ballot box.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several national environmental groups are joining forces this year to try to elect Tom Udall and two other Democrats to the U.S. Senate, an unprecedented level of coordination that aims to build off their success in 2006 in ousting a U.S. House member. The news that the groups picked Udall as one of three candidates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}