Carly Fiorina is the champion of getting bad press in her current bid for the U.S. Senate. After all, her wacky political ads made “demon sheep” a buzzword (and even a Twitter hash-tag representing all things bizarre) early in the campaign.
But the weird YouTube advertisements pale in comparison to how out-of-step she is with the values of most Californians on multiple issues. Recently, she waffled on whether or not she would have supported extending unemployment benefits to struggling Americans. Yes, really.
But it’s her epic, knee-jerk, and seemingly deliberate aversion to and ignorance on all things environmental that may ultimately doom her candidacy. We’ve already discussed Fiorina’s eyebrow-raising comments that Senator Barbara Boxer’s work on climate change solutions is like “worrying about the weather” in a previous post. Now she’s revealed to be taking money from out-of-state coal interests who are at the same time funding the Dirty Energy Proposition to repeal California’s landmark climate law:
From a blog post by reporter Lance Williams at investigative reporting outfit California Watch:
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina has received about $63,000 in donations this year from Appalachian coal-mining interests, much of the money from an outspoken Ohio mine owner who dismisses global warming as “hysterical global goofiness.”
That Ohio mine owner is Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy. Murray is a climate change denier who is apparently determined to remove Senator Barbara Boxer from office. In testimony at a 2007 Senate hearing that Boxer attended, Murray accused congressional Democrats of “attempting to export the draconian so-called ‘global warming’ measures already enacted in California … to the rest of America.” Boxer subsequently asked Murray about mining safety, and said his company had paid the “biggest fines” of any mine operator in Ohio. I guess he took issue with that too. Hence, the big-bucks support for GOP candidate Fiorina, who has said “we need to have the courage to examine the science” of climate change.
A follow-up story by Williams continues to reveal the Dirty Coal connection to Fiorina and the effort to repeal the state’s landmark climate law:
In February, as California Watch has reported, Murray Energy’s political committee and executives, including combative CEO Robert Murray, combined to contribute nearly $25,000 to GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s campaign against Barbara Boxer, the incumbent Democrat. (At the same Ohio fundraiser, Fiorina obtained an additional $39,000 from Midwestern companies that sell coal mining equipment and supplies.)
Then, in May, Murray Energy donated $30,000 to California’s Proposition 23, which would suspend the state’s AB 32 anti-global warming measure until the economy rebounds from the recession.
Just to clarify, the proposition getting its funding from Ohio coal (along with Texas oil companies) wouldn’t just “suspend” AB 32 but would kill the state’s climate law by requiring nearly-impossible to achieve employment rate in California. But I digress…
Can there be any doubt who Fiorina will represent if she’s elected to the U.S. Senate? Here’s a hint: Not California voters. Big polluters will be lining up for their payback in the form of policies that favor corporate profits over the environment, public health and California’s families.
Let’s re-elect Senator Barbara Boxer, an environmental champion who will stand up for real Californians, not Ohio coal companies and data-challenged climate change doubters.
