Three Dems Targeted on Waxman’s Subcommittee

The National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, the “grassroots lobbying arm” of NWF (you know, they only educate), announced last week that “hunters and anglers” (as though NWFAF represents that unified group) are running ads in Democrat-held swing districts (PDF) of three congressmen ahead of an upcoming expected vote on the Waxman-Markey cap-and-energy-tax legislation:

“Hunters and anglers want fast action to safeguard natural resources and reduce the effects of climate change in the places where they fish and hunt – places they want to protect for their children and grandchildren,” said Sue Brown, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund. “The ads send a clear message that the nation’s sportsmen and women want a strong bill from the committee that will reduce global warming pollution and invest in our natural resources.”

The sportsmen were so incensed that they showed up en masse at Congress’s doorstep:

Dozens of hunters and anglers from across the country visited Capitol Hill, making nearly 100 visits with members of Congress and their staffers and meetings with Administration officials.

How did the representatives (and their staffers) manage to withstand all that political pressure? Almost 100 visits!

Meanwhile the three Congressmen targeted by NWFAF and their casters and shooters are Arkansas’s Mike Ross, Louisiana’s Charlie Melancon, and Utah’s Jim Matheson. All are members of the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment under the Waxman-chaired Energy and Commerce Committee. Here’s what each has said (PDF) recently about Waxman-Markey:

Ross: “If you don’t like $4-a-gallon gasoline, you’re really not going to like your electric bill sometime between now and 2030.”

Melancon: “I believe this bill would create an undue burden on families who are already paying too much in energy bills and on an industry that provides thousands of Louisianians with good jobs.”

Matheson: “The draft bill we are looking at today is a huge piece of legislation,” Matheson said at a hearing recently, bringing up 12 problems he sees with the bill. “It seeks to address an exceptionally complicated issue. I am concerned about moving so quickly.” (Salt Lake Tribune)

NWFAF is running a television ad (“Ducks are coming later; the seasons don’t change like they used to.” — What — are the leaves turning in the spring now?!) in the Little Rock district of Ross, and newspaper ads in Melancon’s (PDF) and Matheson’s (PDF) districts. Word out of DC is that Waxman-Markey has been “watered-down.” Certainly it won’t be enough to alleviate the quoted concerns expressed by the three congressmen.