Republicans for Environmental Protection was born in March 1995, four months after the “wave” election of 1994. As Republicans, REP’s three founding mothers rejoiced when our GOP swept into power after forty long years in the congressional wilderness. However, we were also troubled by the anti-environmentalism lurking between the lines of the Contract with America. Naively, perhaps, we assigned ourselves the task of doing something about it.
A dozen years later, America has experienced another wave election. And this time, the tide has gone out on the GOP’s political dominance.
They say that pride goeth before a fall. To that add arrogance, waste, greed, indifference, incompetence, self-righteousness, self-indulgence, cynicism, cronyism and corruption.
The GOP that President Bush says got a thumpin’ yesterday has of late abandoned many of the principled positions that appealed to generations of voters, not the least of which is its tradition of natural resource conservation and environmental protection.
We at REP have spent a decade trying to persuade GOP leaders that our party would be politically stronger, morally virtuous, and historically correct if it responded to the American people’s desire for effective conservation and environmental protection. While our message resonated with many GOP members of Congress, it clearly has not with party leaders.
We knew from the pre-election polls that yesterday was going to be rough for our side. What nobody knew was how bad it would get.
The answer was: really bad.
We lost too many green Republicans yesterday, most notably:
- Sen. Lincoln Chafee (RI), #1 in the Senate on our 2005 Scorecard;
- Sen. Mike DeWine (OH), rated in the top six on our Scorecard;
- Rep. Nancy Johnson (CT), who for years fought to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge like a mother grizzly defending her cub;
- Rep. Charlie Bass (NH), who organized the 2005 “GOP Revolt” that kept Arctic Refuge drilling out of the non-filibusterable budget bill;
- Rep. Sue W. Kelly (NY), a member of our Honorary Board;
- Rep. Jim Leach (IA), who stuck with his pro-conservation principles for 30 years in the House; and
- Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (PA), a courageous freshman whose pro-conservation stands earned him 100% on our 2005 Scorecard (and who lost by just 521 votes out of 250,000 cast).
Add to those the August primary defeat of Rep. Joe Schwarz (MI) and the retirement of Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (NY), and you can see how yesterday’s elections have made REP’s work even more challenging.
It’s important to note that these people did not lose because of their pro-conservation track records. In fact, given the areas where they live, their “greenness” almost certainly kept votes in their columns that otherwise would have gone to their opponents. It was the GOP’s overall malfeasance that took them down, not their history of support for conservation.
Looking on the brighter side, many of our endorsed incumbents did win:
- Senators Richard Lugar (IN) and Olympia Snowe (ME)
- Reps. Chris Shays (CT), Mike Castle (DE), Mark Kirk and Tim Johnson (IL), Wayne Gilchrest and Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Vern Ehlers (MI), Jim Ramstad (MN), Frank LoBiondo, Michael Ferguson, Rod Frelinghuysen, Jim Saxton, and Chris Smith (NJ), Jim Gerlach (PA), Bob Inglis (SC), and Tom Davis (VA). As this issue goes to press, Rob Simmons (CT) and Dave Reichert (WA) are locked in dead-heat races headed for a recount. (Postscript: Rep. Simmons ultimately lost in his recount; Rep. Reichert won.)
We shed no tears at the fall of Rep. Richard Pombo (CA), the radically anti-environmental chairman of the Resources Committee, and Rep. Charlie Taylor (NC), who never saw a forest he didn’t want to log and who has pushed for years to build a destructive road through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Unquestionably, the best piece of news yesterday was Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s blowout re-election victory. REP had endorsed him; many California REPs gave him their personal endorsements and worked for his campaign. So we took pride and pleasure in his victory.
But beyond that... we see Governor Schwarzenegger as a fine model for GOP candidates eager for victory in 2008 and beyond.
Schwarzenegger has turned out to be a pragmatic, non-ideological, results-oriented politician. He takes pains to learn about new approaches and adjusts his thinking to reflect his growing understanding of an issue.
His approach to climate change offers a perfect example. No other American elected official has done so much to start solving this problem, and the voters rewarded him for that.
President Bush was correct when he said yesterday that the American people want ethical government. Corruption was a bigger factor in this election than the war in Iraq. Rep. Pombo didn’t lose because of the war, but because of his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The American people know that the GOP can’t properly address the related issues of energy and climate change if it’s tied to the special interests, specifically the oil, gas, and coal industries. Yet public concern over energy and climate change is rising. Republican candidates who want to appeal to suburbanites and independents must begin addressing those issues from the national security and economic perspective. Doing so will promote sound environmental and conservation policies, too, which the American people also want.
So, where does REP go from here?
We must continue making our case that conservation is conservative.
We must engage in constructive dialogue with the Republican National Committee, enlisting the help, as needed, of influential conservatives who are sympathetic to our cause.
We must continue to point out how the corrosive influence of special interests — lobbyist scandals, runaway pork spending, bad policy decisions — hurt our party in this election.
We must keep urging Republican officials to work cooperatively with Democratic leaders, while offering positive advice and constructive criticism to both parties.
Whether we’re offering positive advice or constructive criticism to Republicans, it must always be set in the context of seeking Republican victories in 2008 and beyond.
We must rally conservation-minded Republicans to nominate and elect both a green GOP president and a greener GOP Congress in 2008.
We have a window of opportunity right now. GOP candidates and leaders are going to be looking for new ways to appeal to voters in 2008. We must help them rediscover the joys and rewards of conservation.
In a way, the voters did our GOP a favor by saying, in the most effective way that citizens can, that party leaders had put narrow agendas and self-aggrandizement above principled public service. If our party takes the right lessons from the election, it will enjoy electoral success again.
Martha Marks is the president of Republicans for Environmental Protection.
