Open Seats
US Senate – Chris Van Hollen
Chris Van Hollen has been a leader on the environment in all the elected offices he’s held. In Congress he has worked hard to address climate change and currently has a bill that the Sierra Club publicly supports called the Healthy Climate and Family Security Act which puts a price on carbon and hands the proceeds back to the taxpayers. He’s fought for additional funding for the Chesapeake Bay cleanup and, as the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, he has always authored budgets that fully fund the EPA as well as money for National Park maintenance. On almost every question on our questionnaire Van Hollen has a bill or supported a bill addressing that issue. He was a leader in the House from even before he took office. Nancy Pelosi created a leadership position for him so he could attend leadership meetings. We look forward to having his leadership in the Senate. Note that Congressman Van Hollen has a lifetime LCV score of 98%.
US House – MD District 4 – Joseline Pena-Melnyk
Joseline Pena-Melnyk has a lifetime score of 94% from the Maryland League of Conservation Voters and was endorsed in 2010 and 2014 by the Sierra Club when she defended her MD House seat successfully. She has a solid history of working with local environmental activists on many issues. She has sponsored or co-sponsored environmental legislation such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). She’s also not afraid to buck the establishment, as she did in opposing the Inter-County Connector and opposing the addition of trash incineration as a Tier 1 energy source in the RPS. District 4 is very diverse ethnically and economically and the crowded field of candidates for this office reflects that reality. The leading issues in this community are poverty, crime, education and jobs – concern for traditional environmental issues are not as prominent as they are in more affluent areas of the country. One of the challenges facing Sierra Club and other environmental activists is to raise the profile of our issues, and we feel that Peña-Melnyk is the best candidate to do so. Delegate Pena-Melnyk’s lifetime MD-LCV score is 94%.
US House – MD District 8 – Jamie Raskin
Jamie Raskin has an innate ability to frame issues in a way that gets people behind them and he is extremely likeable and respectful of others views. He makes friends on both sides of the aisle because he genuinely likes people. So he has managed to get controversial legislation thru the Senate often with Republican support. An environmental example of that is one of his bills to impose a strict liability for the costs of damages caused by fracking on the frackers. He managed to get this passed in our fairly conservative Senate – whereas it died in committee in the House. Even though he is not on the Senate committee that deals with environmental legislation, he frequently speaks up on the floor in favor of good environmental legislation and against bad environmental legislation and has turned many floor votes with his strong arguments. Campaign finance reform is of particular interest (since he is a Constitutional scholar) and he recently introduced a bill in MD that would require the votes of shareholders for a corporation to spend its money in an election. Addressing climate change is Senator Raskin’s top issue. To quote from his website: “Climate change isn’t just an issue it is the entire context in which we have to make all our public policy decisions. If you get your science from scientists instead of Fox News, you know this is an emergency and not a myth.” Senator Raskin has a lifetime MD-LCV score of 98%.
Incumbents
Sierra Club endorsement policy is to endorse incumbents who have been helpful to us in their elected positions. We are fortunate to have a delegation with one of the highest lifetime score averages in the country on the League of Conservation Voters Scorecard. If you are interested in reviewing your member’s voting record you can find it at: http://scorecard.lcv.org/
US House – MD District 1 – No Endorsement
US House – MD District 2 – Dutch Ruppersberger Lifetime LCV score: 84%
US House – MD District 3 – John Sarbanes Lifetime LCV score: 95%
US House – MD District 5 – Steny Hoyer Lifetime LCV score: 81%
US House – MD District 6 – John Delaney Lifetime LCV score:90%
US House – MD District 7 – Elijah Cummings Lifetime LCV score: 94%