This is important. Corporate polluters including Chevron, Valero, and Dow Chemical have already spent $107,000 to try to buy a single legislative seat, and they still have more than half a million dollars left in their “dark money” PAC. If history is any indication, this is just a taste of what’s to come. That’s right, it’s election season in California again, and these special interests are perfectly on cue.
With a State Senate seat in Los Angeles County opened up, CLCV and the progressive community have been quick to back a proven public servant with a strong environmental record — Mike Eng. You may remember Mike’s previous service in the Assembly. We certainly do. Mike earned an impressive 94% environmental score and was a true environmental champion. He authored legislation to reduce smog and air pollution, a bill to generate funds to clean-up groundwater contamination, and passed a first-of-its-kind landmark bill that established the human right to water. This doesn’t even include his critical support for bills expanding clean energy, working to ensure low-income communities of color get their fair share of funds to clean-up pollution, and banning toxics from baby bottles.
With a strong record like that, corporate polluters aren’t sitting idly by and letting someone they know will oppose them every step of the way get elected to office. That’s why they along with their corporate allies have already committed a fortune to defeat Eng — and we still have a month before the primary!
But here’s the thing: corporate polluters know that if they revealed to voters that as oil, tobacco, and chemical interests they oppose a candidate, voters would support the very candidate they’re trying to defeat. Everyone knows they’re not out for the public’s interest; they’re out for their own profits. So corporate polluters are sending mailers and reaching out to voters with a page out of their age old playbook, using a fake, innocuous- sounding name for their PAC like “Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy” and “JobsPAC.” Jobs are good, right? We can get behind a strong economy, right? Only they should really be called “Corporate Polluter PAC” because that’s who they really are. They don’t care about voters; they care about their profits. They care about defeating Mike Eng.
Well, we say Bring. It. On.
