Yesterday saw the revelation of Congressman Jim Matheson’s unethical dependence on lobbyists for curiously clustered campaign donations. Progressive Democratic rival Claudia Wright is is leveraging Matheson’s ethical lapses, running on a platform supporting ethics reform on the state and federal level.
It’s not just ethics that distinguishes Wright from Matheson, however. Wright is also campaigning hard on Matheson’s anti-environmental record. Specifically, she is citing Matheson’s vote against climate legislation last year. The Salt Lake Tribune has written of Matheson’s opposition to action on climate change, “Matheson chose instead to place coal, oil and gas interests ahead of his constituents’ and fear of change ahead of faith in American ingenuity.”
Claudia Wright, on the other hand, supports congressional action to confront climate change. She writes, “I believe that the nation that can lead the world in clean manufacturing, renewable energy resources, and practical step-by-step reduction of our carbon footprints will lead the world in the twenty-first century. I believe that nation should be the United States of America. Use of existing technologies, incentives, and a federal carbon tax could go a long way toward moving this goal forward.”
