Conservation group tracks voting records

AUGUSTA – Thirty Democratic state lawmakers compiled perfect records in key votes on environmental issues this year, according to a scorecard compiled by the Maine League of Conservation Voters.

Besides 22 House Democrats and eight Senate Democrats, also on the league’s side of selected tallies every time was independent Sen. Jill Goldthwait of Bar Harbor.

Sixteen House Republicans were judged to have voted against the league’s preferred stance on every scorecard vote.

Issues examined ranged from land use and toxins to wildlife and invasive species. The league scorecard reported seven votes in the House and five in the Senate.

“We regard this as a midterm exam,” said Eliza Townsend, the executive director of the Maine league.

The league has published legislative voting records every other year since 1986. New plans call for a scorecard to be published annually. Next year’s scorecard, following the completion of the current two-year legislative session, will include formal ratings, according to league officials.

House Majority Leader Patrick Colwell, D-Gardiner, who was one of the seven-for-seven House Democrats on the latest scorecard, said the league’s data suggested to him that Democrats play the lead role in the Legislature on environmental matters.

“I’ve been troubled by the kind of polarization I’ve seen on the environment since I’ve been in the Legislature,” he said Wednesday.

Top House Republicans were not in the State House on Wednesday afternoon and were unavailable for immediate comment.

The league’s new publication includes a number of entries playing down any question of partisan leaning.

Republican lawmakers who frequently sided with league positions won mention in a listing of voting highlights that accompanied the scorecard.

Senate President Pro Tem Richard Bennett, R-Norway, for instance, was credited with being “decisive in his support for Gov. King’s reappointment of Stephen Wight to the Land Use Regulation Commission.”

Bennett, along with Assistant Democratic Senate Leader Sharon Treat of Gardiner and Democratic Reps. Linda McKee of Wayne and Sharon Libby Jones of Greenville, also won plaudits for helping to defeat “attempts to alter the character of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.”

Republican Reps. Howard Chick of Lebanon and Arthur Mayo of Bath, the league publication reported, “each voted pro-environment on six of the seven bills on this year’s scorecard.”