The Sierra Club has pumped $800, 000 into last minute television ads for three Democratic Party Congressional campaigns around the country and one of them is the District 22 race in South Florida.
“With ‘Big Oil’ doing everything they can to try to buy back Congress, today the Sierra Club launched three new television ads in key congressional races – Michigan’s 7th District, Arizona’s 8th District, and Florida’s 22nd District,” said a press release by the environmental group.
In District 22, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein,D-BocaRaton, is locked in a tight race with GOP contender Allen West.
The ad being screened in South Florida pictures smoke spewing from British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded April 20 and was finally plugged Sept. 9, not before dumping millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The ad also shows a pelican covered in oil and then superimposes West next to an offshore oil rig.
“For five months BP spewed oil into the gulf – polluting Florida beaches and devastating our economy,” says the narrator. ” But Allen West still supports drilling for oil off the Florida coast. And West says he ‘sees nothing about the situation in the Gulf that will change his mind'”
“No wonder West received thousands in contributions from oil companies,” continues the ad. “Ron Klein has a better way – protect our beaches and develop alternative energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Ron Klein for Congress.”
The Klein/West race is believed to be the most heavily financed Congressional contest in the nation.
The other two ads purchased with the Sierra Club’s last minute money deal with Michigan’s 7th district and Arizona’s 8th District. In Michigan, the Sierra Club is going after former U.S. Rep Tim Walberg,a Republican, who is trying to regain the seat he lost in 2008.
The Sierra Club says Walberg has a record of “favoring oil over clean energy.”
In Arizona, the club is backing U.S.Rep Gabrielle Giffords, a two-term Democrat, who the club credits with trying to limit the U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
“We want voters in each of these districts to know which candidates will fight for what’s best for their constituents and communities and who will side with the interests of Big Oil and their lobbyists,” said Cathy Duvall, Sierra Club’s Political Director. “Voters have a choice on Election Day to vote for candidates who will side with corporate polluters like BP, or who are working to create more jobs and security by building a clean energy economy.”
