COUNTYWIDE : Sierra Club Backs Perez Ferguson

Sierra Club officials on Monday announced their endorsement of Democrat Anita Perez Ferguson in the race for the 23rd Congressional District seat, which covers most of Ventura County.

John Schmidhauser of Carpinteria, a member of the organization’s Los Padres Chapter, made the announcement at an environmental roundtable in Ventura convened by Perez Ferguson. The Los Padres chapter includes Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“She is a very impressive political leader,” Schmidhauser said.

Perez Ferguson, an Oxnard education consultant who ran unsuccessfully for a House seat two years ago, is opposed by three-term incumbent Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley).

At the roundtable, Perez Ferguson accused Gallegly of having “a history of neglect” on environmental issues. She cited a report by the League of Conservation Voters, a group that monitors voting records of lawmakers, which gave the congressman a “zero” rating on environmental votes in 1991.

At the conference, Perez Ferguson emphasized that economic growth and environmental protection are compatible issues. As an example, she proposed “environmental enterprise zones” that would feature tax credits as an incentive for businesses to use environmentally sensitive production methods.

But Chuck Jelloian, Gallegly’s campaign manager, said Gallegly takes a back seat to no one on environmental issues.

In the first campaign pamphlet Gallegly is distributing since the primary, the lawmaker emphasizes recognition he received from the Sierra Club for voting for the Clean Air Act, Jelloian said.

“She is extreme on the issue of the environment,” Jelloian said. Gallegly, he said, “has a very common sense approach to dealing with it.”