It’s Earth Day, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz Received WHAT Endorsement?!
By Tim Canova — Candidate for Florida’s 23rd Congressional District
This Earth Day, we remember our responsibility to protect the environment and be good stewards of the earth for future generations. That means a commitment to addressing climate change not just with words, but with action.
Our campaign is against hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and endless drilling of oil and gas. We need to convert to 100 percent renewable energy as quickly as possible. That’s why I support Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s OFF Fossil Fuels Act and it’s why I have long opposed the construction of enormous new pipeline projects, like the Sabal Trail Pipeline, a 515-mile pipeline through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida that will pump a billion cubic feet a day of highly pressurized fracked gas through poor neighborhoods and communities of color, through sinkhole country, and across the Upper Floridan Aquifer, source of 60 percent of Florida’s drinking water.
Our opponent, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, has many things in common with Republican candidates in this race. None of them has ever spoken out against the Sabal Trail Pipeline and Wasserman Schultz has notoriously flip flopped many times on fracking. One of her largest corporate donors is NextEra Energy, parent of Florida Power & Light and major investor in the Sabal Trail Pipeline consortium. The biggest donor to Wasserman Schultz’s Patriot Majority Super PAC is Donald Sussman, an offshore hedge fund billionaire with hundreds of millions of dollars in fossil fuel energy investments.
The Sierra Club has been a leader in the fight to stop the Sabal Trail Pipeline. That’s why I was surprised to learn the Sierra Club recently endorsed Wasserman Schultz without so much as an endorsement questionnaire, a screening process, a candidate’s forum or debate.
We already knew this is the way Wasserman Schultz plays politics, as a rigged contest, not as an open and inclusive deliberative process that empowers voters to make informed choices. It’s sad to see the Sierra Club embrace that same view of politics — particularly when there’s such a stark difference between the candidates in this election.
The Sierra Club raises a significant amount of its funding in donations from the public based in large part on its reputation for integrity and commitment to the environment. In light of the Sierra Club leadership’s pro-fracking and pro-pipeline endorsements, a growing number of its members may yet decide to invest their own money elsewhere, in other environmental causes and organizations.
Simply put, the Sierra Club’s closed endorsement process does not protect the environment and it does not safeguard future generations. But it does protect corrupt and compromised incumbents. On this Earth Day, we urge this once proud organization to reverse its endorsement of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other pro-fracking incumbents, to open its endorsement process to all candidates, and allow local Sierra Club members to have a meaningful say in any endorsement decisions.
Thanks for your support and for standing up for future generations this Earth Day.
