Speaker’s race and environment
No, it’s not a pretty photo. Scalise was no good. Jordan is worse.
In what felt like one of the few times I actually got it right on a political prediction, I told my wife that Steve Scalise would probably be elected Republican to replace Kevin McCarthy. Sadly, I was right for only 24 hours. Then Scalise, perhaps the more moderate candidate, dropped out. So Jim Jordan left. To say the least, neither is environmentally positive. But Jordan is even worse.
Scalise.
Let’s start with Mr. Scalise. He was clearly not yet conservative enough to be on the right wing of the party. Still, his record, including a lifetime score of 4% from the League of Conservation Voters, provides little reason for environmentalists’ happiness.
Looking at the actual votes behind the LCV score, we find that since Mr. Scalise recovered from the shooting in 2017, only five of the votes LCV has received have been environmental. They were not strictly monumental or even of medium size. Although it was a matter of scale, it dealt with buffalo management, driftnets, and Great Lakes restoration. (The other three were not actually about the environment; two were about removing Confederate statues and one was about increasing reports of hate crimes.) I could say more about Scalise’s views, but he Now that you are responsible, let’s move on.
Jordan. Let’s switch to a viable replacement, Jim Jordan. Jordan’s lifetime LCV score is actually 3%. It must have been based on a vote much earlier in his career. His last vote as pro-environment was in 2018, when he voted against a major spending bill that included deep cuts to clean energy funding. But it seems entirely possible that he voted against it because he didn’t think it would cut spending enough. I had to go all the way back to 2015 to find another “pro-environment” vote against the trade deal. More recently, Jordan led a parliamentary attack on ESG-promoting companies, threatening them with antitrust laws if they considered climate change risks.
Even considering the general anti-environmental stance of today’s Republican Party, this is a really bad record. As a benchmark, Sen. Rand Paul’s lifetime score is 8%.
For those who find it relevant, I would also like to mention that Jordan actively supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Conclusion.
Jim Jordan ran for Speaker of the House against Scalise and won 45% of the vote, an indication of where House Republicans stand on today’s issues. I don’t think he’ll be accepted by the moderates, but so far they’ve shown as much backbone as bananas. So don’t expect them to block his election.
PS The “banana” metaphor was borrowed from another Republican, Teddy Roosevelt.