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By DAVID PHINNEY
After unsuccessfully spending as much as $2 million to
defeat Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard, national environmental groups began licking their wounds on Wednesday.
The League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club
declared war on Allard this summer with commercials on the Colorado
airwaves scoffing at his
environmental record and claims that his voting record was among
the worst in Congress when it came to improving clean air
and water regulations.
The no-holds-barred campaign didn’t seem to phase to Colorado
voters. Allard repeated his 1996 victory over Democrat Tom Strickland, taking 52 percent of the vote to Strickland’s 46
percent.
Allard’s campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, enjoyed
portraying Allard’s win as an even bigger loss for the
environmental groups. “They poured everything they had
into this and they lost,” Wadhams said. “This election
proves that responsible environmental candidates such as
Allard should not be afraid to do the responsible thing even
if it doesn’t meet the approval with an extreme agenda
that is so out of touch with the people of this state.”
The non-partisan League of Conservation Voters (LCV) placed
Allard on its “Dirty Dozen” hit list this year. About
half of the targeted lawmakers were defeated, but major
efforts by LCV and the Sierra Club to elect Senate Democrats
in
Colorado,
New
Hampshire, Minnesota, and Missouri
fizzled on Election Day.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed with the results and
wanted a more pro-environment Congress elected,” LCV
spokesman Dan Lewis said.
Lewis estimated that the organization independently spent
$4.25 million on congressional races around the country.
About $750,000 was dedicated to
Colorado
he said.
The Sierra Club declined to offer specific figures, but said
late last month it planned to invest about $3 million in
hotly contested races where the outcome could influence
federal environmental policy.
Looking for a bright side in its otherwise bleak election
results, Sierra Club political director Margaret Conway said
the effort forced environmental issues into the spotlight in
many states.
“We made our mark and had an impact,” she said.
“Candidates of both parties were trying to
‘out-environment’ each other. They know voters care. Now
we have to hold them accountable.”
Lewis said that the environment is a perennial concern for Colorado voters, but that issues of national security and a
potential war with Iraq
apparently overshadowed that concern this year.
Also, Allard was able to point to a list of environmental
accomplishments that were respectable to state voters --
supporting the creation of the Great Sand Dunes National
Park and the Spanish Peaks Wilderness Area -- even though
the national environmental groups tried to dismiss them as
“easy votes.”
Denver
pollster Floyd Ciruli agreed that spending by the
environmental groups might have flexed some muscle in the
campaign, but that the election barnstorming and popularity
of President Bush handed Republicans big victories across
the country and in Colorado.
“This turned out to be an election affirming a Republican
president’s strategy on
Iraq,” Ciruli said. “The peripheral issues washed away
by a tidal wave of enthusiasm for the president.”
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