Steve Poizner appeared on the John and Ken show (you know, the heads on a pike guys). He was there to show that he was one with the Tea Party people, and was going to slash and burn through the state government. He spent a lot of time on how he’s slashed the Department of Insurance. He, it’s easy if you just let the insurance companies watch themselves right? Who needs regulators?
Anyway, he was then asked for contrasts between himself and the Meg Whitman. Here’s a transcript of a portion of his response.
STEVE POIZNER: Well you figure her out, because on one hand she tries to come across tough on the environment because she knows she’s on the spot now in the Republican primary, on the other hand, in 2007 and 2008 she gave $300,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund. Now Google the Environmental Defense Fund, they’re suing farmers over the Delta Smelt? You ask her, how can she do that? How can she actually endorse and campaign for Barbara Boxer in 2006? Now, how come she didn’t vote most of her life?
Emphasis mine. Go back and read that again. Poizner is saying that Whitman is “playing” tough on the environment, while he, in fact, really is “tough on the environment.” What does that mean? Has there been anything more terrifying come out of a candidates lips with respect to the environment than this?
Does this mean that Poizner himself will go around kicking down trees and digging holes in the search for oil in state parks? Or will he just allow corporations free reign of the state?
Whatever the meaning, it opens a window into what it would mean to elect either of these candidates. We are not only talking about suspension of AB 32, we’re talking about candidates that are looking for ways that they can crawl over themselves to sell out the environment. It’s not just insulting to environmentalists, it’s downright scary.
Poizner and Whitman are running two very different races. The ubiquitous radio ads for Whitman seem all to be aimed at the DTS votes and her vision for CA, focusing on her experience in job creation. Poizner, on the other hand, seems to be trying to demagogue every issue that he can. Stupid Steve seems not to get the fact that “it’s still the economy.”
The real question regarding Republicans is that you may not be able to win the primary without the Central Valley vote and that has a lot to do with Water. On this, it is not clear that there is any difference.
Poizner is going call a press conference for the sole purpose of emptying an entire aerosol can to prove that he is, in fact, tougher on the environment than Meg. Then he’s going to club a baby seal.
It is increasingly clear that Californians who care about creating a clean energy economy and protecting our state’s natural beauty and the health of our communities must mobilize to “Build a Greener Governor” (http://www.greengov2010.org/). The time is now — before the candidates, including the undeclared Democratic candidate Jerry Brown, decide to take this race to the bottom on the environment any further.