Environmentalists play key role in 2012 races

For years, environmentalists have been seen as marginal players in presidential and congressional elections.

That may have changed last week.

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The environmental community scored a string of successes Tuesday in New Mexico, Montana, Texas and other states, winning seven of eight targeted Senate races and at least threetargeted House races. Although plenty of outside groups poured money into these contests, even some representatives of the fossil-fuel industry said that environmentalists had invested their resources wisely in 2012.

“There is evidence that the environmentalists have become a more mature political force,” said Scott H. Segal, who lobbies for utility companies at the firm Bracewell & Giuliani.

“Environmentalist spending was up considerably this cycle, and they seemed to resist the frequent trap of supporting third-party or crank candidates in ways that would have siphoned off votes from mainstream Democrats,” Segal said.

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) spent more than $14 million this year, more than it had in the past three election cycles combined, and groups including the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, Defenders of Wildlife Action Committee, Environment America and Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund also devoted money and volunteers to key contests.

Margie Alt, executive director of Environment America, said activists decided to focus on several Senate races in order to ensure that House Republicans’ efforts to reverse some of President Obama’s policies curbing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change would die in the Senate.

“We knew we would have to defend the actions he’s taken this year, and in past years, against rollbacks from coal, from oil and their allies in Congress,” Alt said at a news conference Wednesday.

In a handful of contests, environmentalists’ money, time and targeting played a critical role. Earlier this year, both parties viewed the Senate contest in New Mexico between Rep. Martin Heinrich (D) and former congresswoman Heather Wilson (R) as highly competitive. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and two conservative super PACs, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, spent heavily on television ads attacking Heinrich.

Environmentalists spent nearly $2 million on phone, mail and ads attacking Wilson for her unwillingness to hold oil companies liable for contaminating New Mexico’s water supply with MTBE, a fuel additive. The narrator of one ad rattled off Wilson’s campaign contributions from oil and gas firms before declaring, “It makes you wonder, who’s Heather Wilson with? Not us.”

By the end of the summer, GOP-affiliated groups pulled back from the race after polls showed Heinrich with a significant lead. Heinrich, who came under fire for his support for climate legislation and opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, said the environmentalists’ ads helped ensure his victory Tuesday.

“They were really strategic and showed a political sophistication that has only emerged in the last few years,” Heinrich said. “They were able to dig down and do some extensive polling to figure out where a candidate’s positions don’t line up with the constituents’ and bring that out.”