ELECTIONS 19TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Sierra Club Doesn’t Endorse Ferguson

Despite repeated assurances that a Sierra Club endorsement was in hand, the congressional campaign of Democrat Anita Perez Ferguson did not secure the official blessing of the nation’s largest and most influential environmental group Wednesday.

The Ferguson campaign had announced Tuesday that it would receive the club’s official endorsement at a news conference in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, but abruptly canceled the meeting for what it called “logistical reasons.”

In July, the campaign had said in political flyers that it had secured the club’s endorsement but later retracted the premature claim after complaints from Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura). A Sierra Club official in Washington said an endorsement of Ferguson was still under consideration, but stressed that there is “no way of telling if a decision will be made before the election.”

Both Ferguson and Lagomarsino have actively sought the club’s endorsement as a way to woo environmentally conscious voters in the 19th Congressional District, which straddles Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Voters in both counties have become increasingly concerned about environmental issues, especially the ecological impact of offshore oil drilling and onshore housing and commercial development.

Neither Ferguson nor her campaign staff responded to inquiries about Wednesday’s mix-up. But Beverly Full, a Sierra Club official in Port Hueneme, said the area chapter’s recommendation that the national club endorse Ferguson has not been confirmed by the national political committee in Washington.

“The Sierra Club is a big organization, and it takes a while for the machinery to get going,” said Full, political chairwoman of the club’s Los Padres chapter, which has more than 6,000 members in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

The chapter had recommended that the national club endorse Ferguson partly to reflect the chapter’s displeasure over Lagomarsino’s environmental voting record, Full said. The chapter relied heavily on the League of Conservation Voters’ score card that gave Lagomarsino a 44% rating on a scale of 100 for key environmental votes in the last two years.

Full said members of the chapter’s executive board are infuriated that Lagomarsino’s political ads use a letter and a medal he was given earlier by the national club to shore up his environmental image.

“With all of his money for political ads, he is inferring that the Sierra Club is supporting him, even though we are not,” Full said.

Lagomarsino disputed that his ads infer any Sierra Club endorsement. He said the voters ought to know that the Sierra Club has honored him for helping renew the Clear Air Act with a medal and a letter of gratitude from its president.

“They shouldn’t give me medals or write those letters if they don’t want me to use them,” he said. “I think people have a right to know that they are saying favorable things about me.”

In his reelection campaign, Lagomarsino has stressed his environmental efforts that most recently include co-sponsoring an amendment to tighten air-pollution controls on diesel-powered offshore oil rigs.

The amendment was included in the final version of the clear air bill that Congress approved last week. “My amendment . . . is one of the most important victories for coastal communities,” he said.

Betsy Loyless, the Sierra Club’s assistant political director in Washington, said the club has appreciated Lagomarsino’s help on some legislation.

But overall, she said, Lagomarsino’s record is disappointing. “The opinion on Lagomarsino’s environmental record is that it is not a record of model environmentalism. It is well below 50%, and that is a failing grade.”

The House race has also attracted the first congressional candidate from the Green Party. Mindy Lorenz, running as a write-in candidate, did not win the Sierra Club’s blessing either. But she has received the endorsement of David Brower, a patriarch of the environmental movement and a founding member of the Sierra Club.