Candidates Battling for the Environment--That’s Where the Votes Are : Politics: The issue dominates races nationwide. Few dare underestimate the growing importance of the U.S. ‘green vote.’

The environment is dominating political races nationwide as candidates try to turn the tree-planting fervor of Earth Day into a harvest of votes on Election Day.

Politicians pose by gurgling streams and boast of their commitment to clean air, pure water and abundant wildlife. Democrats, who once considered environmental issues their exclusive property, now face Republicans trying--at times successfully--to seize the “green vote.”

But conservation groups warn that some candidates’ new-found love of nature is not supported by their voting records.

“We’re spending a lot of time keeping candidates honest,” said Ali Webb, spokeswoman for the League of Conservation Voters. The Washington-based group issues annual report cards, scoring members of Congress based on their votes on environmental bills.

Webb said the scorecards help attack the rhetoric of candidates such as Sen. Dan Coats, an Indiana Republican seeking reelection.

Coats ran a television commercial in May praising his work to place an Indiana hazardous waste site on the federal Superfund cleanup list. As music played, a little girl drank water from a glass and the announcer intoned: “Senator Dan Coates. Stopping pollution. Stopping the poison.”

Environmentalists did not dispute the facts of the ad but denounced it as misleading. The Sierra Club said Coats had voted against the Superfund program 15 of 16 times in committee and had opposed a law enabling citizens to sue for toxic-waste cleanup. The League of Conservation Voters said Coats’ lifetime “green” score was a disappointing 38 out of a possible 100.

“What he implied in the ads is that Dan Coats has been a champion and friend of the environment. The fact is, his record has been miserable,” said Betsy Loyless, the Sierra Club’s assistant political director.

Next door in Illinois, both candidates for Senate claim to be the better environmentalist.

GOP Rep. Lynn Martin, trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Paul Simon, said the senator’s recent vote against the Clean Air Act cast doubt on his dedication to pollution control. Simon responded that he had supported amendments to strengthen the bill but could not vote for the final version because it penalized Illinois and other producers of high-sulfur coal.

The Sierra Club sided with Simon, calling Martin a “Jill-come-lately to the environment.” Simon’s lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters is 78; Martin’s is 44, Webb said.

In general, Democrats in Congress still rank an average 20 points higher on the conservation league’s list than Republicans.

But the environment has been open territory since the 1988 presidential race, when George Bush faulted Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis for not cleaning up Boston Harbor. Democrats are still smarting from that unexpected attack. They insist that Dukakis’ environmental record was superior.

“The Republicans have changed their tactics, if not their stripes,” said Tony Podesta, an environmental consultant to the Democrats. “They used to say: ‘These radical environmentalists, we won’t kowtow to them.’ Now they say: ‘We’re the responsible environmentalists. We’re for both economic growth and the environment.’ But I don’t think they’ve succeeded in blunting the advantage Democrats have in the environment.”

He can’t be talking about Rhode Island, where the League of Conservation Voters has endorsed Republicans in all three of the state’s congressional races.

Rep. Claudine Schneider, a Republican trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Claiborne Pell, is “the environmentalist’s environmentalist,” said the conservation league’s Webb.

Pell has a solid pro-environment record, but Schneider was chosen because she puts environmental issues at the top of her priority list. “We’re looking for flame-throwers,” Webb said.

The second Rhode Island Republican endorsed by the league is Rep. Ronald K. Machtley, running for reelection after scoring a perfect 100 on the group’s list during his freshman term. The third is Trudy Coxe, a longtime environmental activist aiming to fill Schneider’s vacated House seat.

“People are realizing that someone’s party affiliation has nothing to do with the environment,” said Robert J. Rendine, a Schneider campaign spokesman.

In California’s gubernatorial race, both GOP Sen. Pete Wilson and former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, are vying for the environmental vote. Feinstein has endorsed the “Big Green,” a far-reaching voter initiative on this November’s ballot. Wilson opposes the initiative but claims credit for persuading President Bush in June to postpone oil and gas lease sales off the California coast.

Nowhere is the environment a hotter issue than in the Pacific Northwest. But candidates there are leery of being labeled as environmentalists.

Federal efforts to protect the spotted owl have heated up the conflict between saving ancient forests and preserving timber-industry jobs. The result is a region torn between resource-dependent rural residents and a growing urban population that favors environmental protection.

Caught in the middle are candidates such as Rep. Jolene Unsoeld, a liberal Democrat from southwestern Washington seeking a second House term.

In 1988, her strongest support came from lunch-bucket Democrats in timber towns. Now, when she speaks, timber workers hiss and hold up signs proclaiming, “Ban Jolene, Not Logging.”

Her Republican opponent, former state Rep. Bob Williams, accused Unsoeld of “selling out the working men and women in favor of extreme environmentalists who want to worship trees.”

The League of Conservation Voters gave Unsoeld a score of 90 and is endorsing her candidacy. But Unsoeld is keeping her distance from environmentalists, instead stressing her pro-labor record and work against drug abuse.

“The environment is a very important aspect to her. But saving jobs in her district is, too,” said campaign manager Dee Frankfourth.

Unsoeld’s standoffishness is increasingly rare.

As public concern mounts over the environment, more politicians go knocking at the doors of conservation groups to seek support. In the past, those groups often had to choose between the lesser of evils in endorsing candidates. Now they have more clout to make demands of politicians.

“They want our support,” Webb said, “and they’re willing to make some promises and pledges to get it.”