Conservation Group Rates Lawmakers

State lawmakers have won praise and criticism for their votes on environmental legislation from the California League of Conservation Voters, a political watchdog group that monitors how elected officials vote in Sacramento.

The league’s 20th annual environmental voting chart, which was released Tuesday, revealed that two Ventura County lawmakers supported the majority of conservation bills last year, while three local legislators did not.

State Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) and Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) ranked in the top percentiles for their votes on environmental legislation in Sacramento. According to the chart, which analyzed votes on 27 Senate and Assembly bills that addressed water, wildlife, land use and air pollution, Hart voted 87% of the time in favor of conservation legislation in 1993 and O’Connell voted pro-conservation 82% of the time.

The league, a nonpartisan organization, reported that the county’s Republican lawmakers were far less conservation-minded than the two Democrats.

Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) voted pro-conservation 16% of the time in 1993, the report says. Assembly members Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) and Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) voted pro-conservation 8% of the time.

But the Republican legislators dismissed the report as irrelevant.

“What bothers me the most with all these polls is they take selective bills,” Wright said. In other polls conducted by local chambers of commerce, she has scored very high, she said.

Takasugi said it is inappropriate to consider the league’s poll a report card of his performance during 1993.

“I’m certainly a supporter of the environment,” he said.

Boland’s chief of staff, Scott Wilks, defended her record, saying the economy must sometimes take priority over the environment. “We need to strike a reasonable balance between the environment and people’s jobs,” he said.