“Rock” the Vote

If you ever want to feel bad about the future of humanity just read the comments section on literally any Yahoo news article.  I was reading a piece on the recent floods in Nigeria which have displaced 1.4 million people with more than 600 reported dead as of the publication of this article.  At the end of that Yahoo piece there was a somewhat innocuous comment by a woman who said that she was disappointed that it’s taking so long for us to take climate change seriously, she reminisced about her dad speaking on the climate crisis back in the 70’s.  Apparently, this comment was too much, she was berated by climate change deniers, referred to as a liberal sheep, spreader of misinformation, and accused of being blinded by the liberal media.  

Meanwhile, climate disasters continue to happen worldwide from Pakistan to Mississippi, thousands dead, and millions displaced, but a simple suggestion to take climate change seriously…that’s the real issue.  

theDIHEDRAL has been very fortunate to be able to interview top notch climate scientists and specialists over the years, and the one thing that we consistently hear is that the way to incite the level of change necessary to make a difference is by electing officials who take climate change seriously.  Of course, this is important at the federal level, but equally and perhaps more important at the local and state level.

In the US the next election is on Tuesday November 8, 2022, and with the aid of a couple of easily accessible tools, you can inform yourself about candidates’ stance on environmental issues.

There is an organization called Climate Cabinet Action that looks at how state and local politicians have voted regarding legislation on climate action.  The politicians are then rated from 0-100 based on how often they vote in favor or against climate action.  0 is someone who always votes against climate action and 100 is the mark for someone who always votes in favor of climate action.  This information is organized into what is called the Climate Action Scorecard which is available for download on the website.  The data is limited to 25 states, but the organization is growing, and hopefully by the next election cycle all 50 states will be included.

The 25 states represented by the first round of evaluations include: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

I wasn’t shocked to find out that Democrats typically have a higher score than Republicans, but it was shocking to see just how drastic that difference was in some states.  It was also very interesting, and somewhat inspiring to see that states which tend to promote climate action have far more politicians who promote climate action.  Both Democrats and Republicans tend to score higher in states where climate is prioritized. Connecticut is a very good example.

While the Climate Action Scorecard offers incredibly useful data, it needs to be supplemented with further information regarding the candidates, most importantly, you’ll need to find out who is running.  The Scorecard relies on politician’s past votes in order to compute a candidate’s overall score, so newly elected officials will have no data.  Further, candidates running for the first time will have no data available.  Some candidates with a computed score are not running for re-election, and so won’t be found on the ballot.  

I use Ballotopedia.org to find out who is on the ballot in my state, region, and district.  All you have to do is type your state into the search bar, then when your state comes up, you see everyone who is on the ballot.  To go directly to your district just type in your address (or an address in your neighborhood if you don’t feel comfortable putting in your own address).  Once your district comes up, the site lists the candidates running for office.  When you find out who is running, you can then check out the scorecard of the incumbent and decide if their voting record aligns with your civic preferences.  

For example, if you happen to live in Colorado House District 25, you’ll find Republican Incumbent Collin Larson running against Democrat Tammy Story.  Colin Larson scored a doleful 5 on the Climate Action Scorecard.  This of course says nothing about Colin as a person, but if your priorities include Climate Action of any kind, then Colin may not be the guy for you.

Let’s try one more.  Suppose you live in Colorado State Senate District 15, you’ll find incumbent Rob Woodward on the ballot.  Now Rob had this to say as one of the key messages that he wants voters to remember about his goals in office, as stated in one of Ballotopedia.org interview questions.  “In order to avoid an energy crisis, Colorado must encourage the development of clean, affordable, and reliable forms of energy. I advocate an all-of-the-above approach. This means developing our oil and gas resources, which produce the cleanest carbon molecule in the world, in addition to renewable sources like wind and solar. I am also in favor of developing geothermal energy resources, having sponsored two geothermal bills that were passed by the legislature in the 2022 session.”  Now despite Rob’s passion for clean, affordable, and reliable energy, his Climate Action Score is 5/100.  Now, it’s important to note that Rob’s score may have gone up as the Climate Action Scorecard was based on votes running through 2021, but for Rob and many like him it looks as if his climate actions speak a little louder than his climate words.

It’ll take a little effort to see where your local candidates stand on climate, but hopefully with these tools, you’ll have a better idea about which direction to pull the lever come November 8.

I took the liberty of organizing the data for the following five states, so if you happen to live in or care about Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, or Oregon, you can see how these state candidates measure up.

Arizona State House

Name	Party	District	Score
Judy Burges	R	1	2
Quang Nguyen	R	1	5
Judy Schwiebert	D	2	100
Justin Wilmeth	R	2	5
Joseph Chaplik	R	3	0
Jennifer Longdon	D	5	96
Amish Shah	D	5	96
Myron Tsosie	D	6	96
David Cook	R	7	11
John Fillmore	R	7	11
Brenda Barton	R	7	2
Melody Hernandez	D	8	100
Athena Salman	D	8	96
Jennifer Pawlik	D	13	92
Travis Grantham	R	14	8
Jacqueline Parker	R	15	0
Gail Griffin	R	19	8
Andres Cano	D	20	96
Alma Hernandez	D	20	90
Lorenzo Sierra	D	22	96
Tim Dunn	R	25	12
Joel John	R	25	10
Kevin Payne	R	27	7
Ben Toma	R	27	11
Beverley Pingerelli	R	28	0
Leo Biasiucci	R	30	15

Arizona State Senate

Name	Party	District	Score
Christine Marsh	D	4	94
Nancy Barto	R	4	6
Lela Alston	D	5	95
Wendy Rogers	R	7	0
Juan Mendez	D	8	100
JD Mesnard	R	13	7
Warren Petersen	R	14	7
TJ Shope	R	16	8
David Gowan	R	19	4
Sally Gonzales	D	20	97
Rosana Gabaldon	D	21	95
Sine Kerr	R	25	5
Sonny Borrelli	R	30	4

Colorado State House

Name	Party	District	Score
Meg Froelich	D	3	100
Serena Gonzales	D	4	100
Alex Valdez	D	5	100
Leslie Herod	D	8	100
Emily Sirota	D	9	100
Julie McCluskie	D	13	100
Marc Snyder	D	18	100
Monica Duren	D	23	100
Colin Larson	R	25	5
Brianna Titone	D	27	90
Shannon Bird	D	29	100
Chris Kennedy	D	30	100
Dafna Jenet	D	32	100
Adrienne Benavidez	D	35	100
Mike Weissman	D	36	100
Hugh MeKean	R	51	18
Cathy Kipp	D	52	100
Matt Soper	R	54	6
Rod Bockenfeld	R	56	10
Perry Will	R	57	20
Marc Catlin	R	58	28

Colorado State Senate

Name	Party	District	Score
Paul Lundeen	R	9	8
Dennis Hisey	R	11	10
Rob Woodward	R	15	5
Jessie Danielson	D	22	99
Faith Winter	D	25	100
Kevin Van Winkle	R	30	10
Robert Rodriguez	D	32	100
Julie Gonzales	D	34	100

Connecticut State House

Name	Party	District	Score
Matthew Ritter	D	1	90
Raghib Allie-Brennan	D	2	100
Minnie Gonzalez	D	3	89
Julio Concepcion	D	4	92
Edwin Vargas	D	6	88
Tim Ackert	R	8	71
Jason Rojas	D	9	88
Henry Genga	D	10	90
Jeffery Currey	D	11	88
Jason Doucette	D	13	100
Tom Delnicki	R	14	81
Bobby Gibson	D	15	90
Jillian Gilchrest	D	18	100
Tammy Exum	D	19	100
Mike Demicco	D	21	93
Devin Carney	R	23	90
Bobby Sanchez	D	25	90
Peter Tercyak	D	26	90
Gary Turco	D	27	92
Kerry Wood	D	28	92
Jill Barry	D	31	92
Christine Carpino	R	32	76
Irene Haines	R	34	75
Christine Palm	D	36	100
Holly Cheeseman	R	37	84
Kathleen McCarty	R	38	88
Anthony Nolan	D	39	92
Christine Conley	D	40	89
Anne Dauphinais	R	44	26
Brian Lanoue	R	45	42
Doug Dubitsky	R	47	55
Susan Johnson	D	49	85
Pat Boyd	D	50	88
Rick Hayes	R	51	17
Kurt Vail	R	52	60
Greg Haddad	D	54	95
Tom Arnone	D	58	92
Carol Hall	R	59	78
Jane Garibay	D	60	100
Tami Zawistowski	R	61	71
Jay Case	R	63	76
Maria Horn	D	64	100
Michelle Cook	D	65	90
William Buckbee	R	67	81
Joe Polletta	R	68	76
Larry Butler	D	72	86
Ron Napoli	D	73	92
Geraldo Reyes	D	75	85
John Piscopo	R	76	36
Christine Pavalock	R	77	68
Gale Mastrofrancesc	R	80	42
Hilda Santiago	D	84	88
Mary Mushinsky	D	85	95
Vincent Candelora	R	86	67
Dave Yaccarino	R	87	88
Josh Elliot	D	88	89
Lezlye Zupkus	R	89	73
Craig Fishbein	R	90	28
Mike D’Agostino	D	91	88
Patricia Dillon	D	92	93
Toni Walker	D	93	92
Robyn Porter	D	94	95
Juan Candelaria	D	95	90
Ronald Lemar	D	96	95
Alphonse Paolillo	D	97	85
Joseph Zullo	D	99	75
Robin Comey	D	102	100
Liz Linehan	D	103	93
Kara Rochelle	D	104	92
Nicole Klarides-Ditria	R	105	78
Mitch Bolinsky	R	106	79
Bob Godfrey	D	110	88
Jason Perillo	R	113	76
Dorind Keenan Borer	D	115	89
Charles Ferraro	R	117	86
Kathy Kennedy	R	119	83
Philip Young	D	120	90
Joe Gresko	D	121	89
Ben McGorty	R	122	71
David Rutigliano	R	123	71
Andre Baker	D	124	92
Tom O’Dea	R	125	82
Chris Rosario	D	128	86
Steven Stafstrom	D	129	90
Antonio Felipe	D	130	92
David Labriola	R	131	84
Cristin Vahey	D	133	88
Anne Hughes	D	135	100
Jonathan Steinberg	D	136	90
Kenneth Gucker	D	138	100
Kevin Ryan	D	139	93
Travis Simms	D	140	90
Lucy Dathan	D	142	92
David Michel	D	145	100
Matt Blumenthal	D	147	92
Dan Fox	D	148	86
Stephen Meskers	D	150	92

Connecticut State Senate

Name	Party	District	Score
John Fonfara	D	1	90
Doug McCrory	D	2	88
Saud Anwar	D	3	100
Derek Slap	D	5	92
Rick Lopes	D	6	90
John Kissel	R	7	85
Matt Lesser	D	9	98
Gary Winfield	D	10	85
Martin Looney	D	11	85
Christine Cohen	D	12	100
James Maroney	D	14	100
Joan Hartley	D	15	83
Robert Sampson	R	16	53
Heather Somers	R	18	85
Catherine Osten	D	19	85
Kevin Kelly	R	21	89
Marilyn Moore	D	22	95
Julie Kushner	D	24	100
Robert Duff	D	25	88
Patricia Miller	D	27	90
Tony Hwang	R	28	90
Mae Flexer	D	29	95
Henri Martin	R	31	83
Eric Berthel	R	32	76
Norm Needleman	D	33	100

Nevada State Assembly

Name	Party	District	Score
Daniele Monroe	D	1	100
Selena Torres	D	3	100
Richard McArthur	R	4	27
Brittney Miller	D	5	95
Steve Yeager	D	9	100
Rochelle Nguyen	D	10	100
Bea Duren	D	11	100
Howard Watts	D	15	100
Melissa Hardy	R	22	74
Sarah Peters	D	24	100
Lesley Cohen	D	29	100
Alexis Hansen	R	32	57
Shannon Bilbray	D	34	100
Michelle Gorelow	D	35	100
Gregory Hafen	R	36	57
Sandra Jauregui	D	41	100

Nevada State Senate

Name	Party	District	Score
Marilyn Dondero	D	8	100
Melanie Scheible	D	9	100
Ira Hansen	R	14	41
James Ohrenschall	D	21	100

Oregon State House

Name	Party	District	Score
David Smith	R	1	48
Pam Marsh	D	5	100
Kim Wallan	R	6	33
Paul Holvey	D	8	92
David Gomberg	D	10	92
Nancy Nathanson	D	13	92
Julianne	D	14	89
Shelby Davis	R	15	31
Dan Rayfield	D	16	97
Rick Lewis	R	18	54
Paul Evans	D	20	81
Courtney Neron	D	26	94
Susan McLain	D	29	87
Robert Nosse	D	42	97
Tawna Sanchez	D	43	96
Greg Smith	R	57	30

Oregon State Senate

Name	Party	District	Score
Jeff Golden	D	3	100
Floyd Prozanski	D	4	94
James Manning	D	7	92
Elizabeth Steiner	D	17	79
Rob Wagner	D	19	94
Bill Kennemer	R	20	36

To look further into the data, or check out your own state, Climate Cabinet Action can be found here. To look into the US candidates running for election on November 8th, a link to ballotpedia can be found here.