Big election coming up for balance of power in Washington state Senate.
The GOP/ALEC (Koch Brothers) are supporting a woman who's a former banker/small business person and currently ALEC state co-chair, who "doubts the validity of climate science". The Democrats' candidate is an ER physician who was appointed to the state Senate seat last January after then-Democratic state senator Derek Kilmer was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Of particular note is that Democrat Dr. Nathan Schlicher's biggest supporter is a San Francisco billionaire named Tom Steyer who made his fortune in hedge funds but now devotes his time and considerable money to promoting government action against global warming. He started a Political Action Committee called the Next Gen Climate Action Committee which has " pumped money into two high-profile races: the special election that sent Massachusetts Democrat and oil-industry critic Ed Markey to the U.S. Senate in June and the current governor’s race in Virginia.
“I don’t personally know Mr. Steyer and haven’t spoken with him,” Schlicher told KUOW. “I appreciate that he believes I represent somebody who cares about the environment and has chosen to invest in that.”
I find this story doubly inspiring: a physician candidate who could make a very good living independent of politics, versus an ALEC political hack; and a self-made billionaire fighting for the environment, instead of spending his time figuring out how to further benefit the one percent.
Climate Contrast
In a recent candidate forum hosted by League of Women Voters of Kitsap County, Schlicher called for fighting climate change by investing in nonpolluting energy sources. "Regardless of what we individually think, the rest of the world believes that climate change is a reality. The rest of the world will be investing trillions, trillions of dollars in green technology. If we’re not investing in it and building those opportunities here in Washington state, it’s like turning away Microsoft in the 70s. It just doesn’t make any sense."
Jan Angel, by contrast, said she doubts the validity of climate science. " The climate change area, I believe, we’ve got to work through what is it we can do better? What can we do smarter? And I’m fully prepared to have those discussions and act when need be, but there’s a lot of areas right now that can’t be proven scientifically that we've had an issue. We can’t throw money at it, without scientific proof."
Virtually all scientists who study the atmosphere agree that there’s scientific proof that humans have started to change the global climate, and those changes will accelerate unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
Jan Angel declined to be interviewed. Her campaign manager Keith Schipper said she’s focused on reaching voters directly.
http://kuow.org/post/kitsap-senate-race-brings-2m-breaks-state-record
= new reply since forum marked as read
