Gordon Smith refuses to meet with hunters and anglers on climate change

Over at Upstream in Oregon, blogger Matt Stansberry describes a recent encounter (or lack thereof) with Senator Gordon Smith and his office in Washington DC:

I’m in Washington DC this week, lobbying on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation on a sportsmen campaign to push global warming legislation. Overall, Oregon’s congressional representatives are very receptive to cap and trade Carbon Dioxide reduction plans, including the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007, Safe Climate Act of 2007, and Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act in the Senate. Four of the state’s seven representatives are cosponsoring climate change legislation, and the lone Democrat holdout Hooley, has said she would endorse the strongest climate change legislation that comes up for a vote.

Unfortunately, Senator Gordon Smith and his staff opted not to talk to us after we made the cross country journey to Washington DC this week. Despite not returning phone calls, we stopped by Smith’s office and waited to talk to one of his assistants. We were told that Gordon Smith’s legislative correspondent, Cort Bush would be available after a meeting; after they asked to see our materials, we were soon told that Cort didn’t have time for us anymore.

Matt notes that snubbing sportsmen could bode poorly for Smith's re-election:

We are hunters and anglers — a significant portion of Smith’s base in Oregon. It’s one thing to be against climate change legislation or to have an issue with particular aspects of a bill, but it’s another to ignore important constituents in an election year. Why Smith’s aid could not explain the Senator’s position is beyond me, but it seems like a huge mistake.

It's not the first time Smith has taken flak for his environmental record.

Read the rest and comment at Upstream in Oregon.

Feb. 14, 2008 Posted in elsewhere.