Sierra Club Endorses Bradbury and Kitzhaber for Governor
PORTLAND, Oregon - The Sierra Club announced its endorsement today of both Bill Bradbury and John Kitzhaber in the 2010 Oregon Gubernatorial race. The announcement comes after a three-stage endorsement process; including questionnaires, participation in the May environmental debate co-sponsored by the Sierra Club, and interviews with the candidates.
“Oregon leads the country when it comes to forward thinking environmental policies – from land and water protection to creating green jobs solving the climate crisis. With both Bradbury and Kitzhaber we can point to two serious and accomplished candidates for Governor who understand the need to prioritize environmental protection and the policies needed to accomplish this goal,” remarked Oregon Chapter Sierra Club Director Brian Pasko.
Bill Bradbury has demonstrated his commitment to the environment through decades of public service including his time as Oregon Secretary of State, and has been a national leader on the environment who is outspoken on the need to aggressively develop clean energy policies that create jobs in Oregon. The Sierra Club endorsement serves to highlight his strengths on creating sustainable approaches to energy use and conservation while addressing the urgency of global warming. Further, his strong principled positions against importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and closing the Boardman coal plant by 2014, Oregon’s largest stationary source of greenhouse gas pollution and toxic air emissions, are welcome and we hope are emulated by other candidates seeking state and local office.
John Kitzhaber, in addition to his strong environmental record as Oregon Governor for eight years, articulated a clear understanding of and commitment to the need to put energy efficiency and conservation at the forefront of Oregon’s energy policies. He has expressed a commitment to addressing Oregon’s reliance on coal and standing against the current round of LNG proposals that threaten Oregon’s coastal areas and rivers. The Sierra Club welcomes his support in helping create protected areas on state forestlands for long-term salmon recovery. His innovative ideas for protecting forests while helping rural counties demonstrate the kind of leadership we need on natural resource policies. He communicated a clear vision on how to get these things done in Salem.
Both candidates also demonstrated that they will use the office of Governor of Oregon to push the federal government to protect important public lands, old growth forests, and salmon.
“Our goal is to not only distinguish these two candidates as worthy of support from voters who care about the environment, but also to distinguish between the two based upon their environmental positions, priorities, and vision for the most discerning of environmental voters,” said Sierra Club volunteer and Political Committee Chair Christine Lewis.
Named the nation’s most influential environmental organization in an Aspen Institute poll, the Sierra Club endorsement is highly coveted by candidates who care about the environment. With nearly 20,000 members statewide, and as a trusted messenger to the broader public, the support of the Oregon Chapter Sierra Club plays a decisive role in state and local elections.
“The Sierra Club rarely makes dual endorsements, but in this case it was particularly appropriate. Oregon, the public at large, and Sierra Club members who want to see environmental leaders in Salem will all be well served by either John Kitzhaber or Bill Bradbury as Oregon’s next governor,” stated Ivan Maluski, Conservation Program Coordinator for the Oregon Chapter Sierra Club.
On the Republican side, the Sierra Club also assessed the candidacies of Allen Alley and Chris Dudley. While Alley deserves credit for participating in the gubernatorial debate sponsored by the Sierra Club, he failed to fill out a written questionnaire. His answers in the debate revealed too much reliance on market forces to create new technologies to address environmental problems, while offering few real-world policy solutions to address these challenges, or measures to encourage or push the market to develop solutions over the next four to eight years. Meanwhile, Chris Dudley’s absence from the debate and failure to fill out a questionnaire demonstrated both an apparent lack of ideas on the types of environmental policies he would support or oppose, and a lack of interest in talking to conservation organizations about the future of Oregon. Dudley appears not to grasp that environmental protection is a mainstream Oregon value shared by voters across the political spectrum. To borrow a quote from Allen Alley: “If you’re not willing to defend your positions… in front of the Sierra Club, then you don’t deserve to be governor.”
