Warming to Reichert cools off

When is best in the West not good enough?

When the League of Conservation Voters says you're the best Republican congressman on the West Coast.

Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, had hoped that ranking would earn him endorsements by environmental groups. Instead, his Democratic challenger, Darcy Burner, is getting the green stamp of approval.

Being environmentalists' favorite Republican may be damning with faint praise. Republicans and environmentalists are historically at odds, and environmental organizations are an important Democratic Party interest group.

Environmental groups have tried to be more bipartisan, particularly locally, and endorse more GOP legislative candidates.

In 2000, a leading environmental activist said, "There is a growing realization that if you are just viewed as a front group for the Democratic Party, that won't help anybody."

So what happened with Reichert? Why wasn't he a good choice for that rare Western Republican to endorse? (There are 12 Republicans on the League of Conservation Voters' list of 43 endorsements, but no GOP incumbent from the West.)

Reichert may have muffed his chances by saying he wasn't sure about global warming.

Todd Myers, a Republican political consultant who directs the Center for Environmental Policy at the conservative Washington Policy Center, says Reichert did all that could have reasonably been asked of him.

He voted against drilling in the Arctic and against allowing more salvage logging.

"These are big, national fights where he voted against leadership and against the president," Myers said.

Myers translates the global-warming question posed by environmentalists this way: "We need you to drink the Kool-Aid." When Reichert balked, "They said, 'OK, you're a heretic.' "

He says environmentalists missed a chance to make Reichert "a voice for their issues" inside the GOP leadership that controls the House. The result, he says, will be a hardening of Republican positions on environmental issues.

As a lobbyist for Washington Conservation Voters, Clifford Traisman works with legislators of both parties and has been part of the effort to back a more bipartisan slate of candidates. But even as the list of endorsed Republicans has grown, he said, "We don't give our love out easily."

Consistency is key, he said.

"Reichert has taken some good votes, but with his comments on global warming, it doesn't appear he gets it in terms of protecting our air, land and water," Traisman said.

Efforts to broaden environmentalists' political reach can be at odds with their role as a key interest group in the Democratic Party, which is trying to regain control of Congress.

"I think you're being intellectually and politically honest when you say, 'Yes, we want the Democrats in the majority but we also want to work with Republicans to make these issues bipartisan, as well,' " Traisman said.

But he conceded: "Sometimes, it is like dancing on the head of a pin."

David Postman is The Seattle Times' chief political reporter. Reach him at 360-236-8267 or at dpostman@seattletimes.com