4 Days...

Just four days remain until Election Day. Races all across the country are very close. How are the Dirty Dozen members going to fare? It appears that three members are almost certainly going to lose. Bob Casey has a wide lead over Senator Santorum and should knock out this member of the Republican leadership in the race in Pennsylvania. LCV has run a strong campaign on behalf of Bob Casey for months now, knocking on tens of thousands of doors in the Philadelphia suburbs. Our campaign has enlisted hundreds of volunteers for the canvass and phoning.

Rep. Katherine Harris’ campaign has been beset by problems from the beginning. For LCV her biggest problem is with her voting record, particularly her flip-flops on proposals to drill off the coasts of Florida. Senator Bill Nelson will be handily re-elected and Harris can return to private life. LCV had an office in Orlando in 2005 in preparation for a tough Senate campaign that never materialized. So we closed down that operation and moved to more competitive races in other states.

Finally, it appears that Rep. Bob Beauprez from my home state of Colorado will fail in his bid to become Colorado’s next Governor. Beauprez was our first gubernatorial candidate ever named to the Dirty Dozen. I am taking special delight in his defeat. LCV has worked with the state league, Colorado Conservation Voters, to highlight Rep. Beauprez’s record in Congress and spell out what that means to the voters in Colorado. His efforts on behalf of the oil and gas industry have not been received well by voters on the Western Slope of Colorado. He started out with a deficit in that region with his support of efforts to take water there and move it to the Front Range. Bill Ritter understands energy and water policy and will be a much better pro-conservation Governor.

Two members of the Dirty Dozen seem headed for certain victory. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and Rep. Dan Boran of Oklahoma will be re-elected on Tuesday. Our best shot at Cuellar was in the primary, but the LCV backed candidate fell short in March.

All the other Dirty Dozen races, eight in all, are too close to call with four days to go until Election Day. If we are to beat these candidates it will require the efforts of pro-conservation activists and voters throughout the country.

I write this blog as I am on my way out to a battleground state to work on Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts over the weekend and Monday and Tuesday. I am managing a staging area where over 100 people a day will be knocking on doors to get voters to turn in absentee ballots or to go to the polls on Tuesday. Once the volunteers are out the door, I will grab my literature and hit the doors myself. I am going to give it my all so that on Wednesday I will wake up knowing I did everything I could to help make change and get pro-conservation candidates elected. There is nothing like talking to neighbors and voters. I suggest everyone give it a try.