| YOUNGSTOWN, OH
- March 1 - The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund today named U.S. Representative Jim Traficant to its 2000 Dirty Dozen list of vulnerable, anti-environment Congressional candidates targeted by the group for defeat. Traficant, the eight-term Democratic incumbent representing Ohio's 17th Congressional district, last year ranked among the bottom three percent of House Democrats for his votes to roll back public health and safety protections. LCV political director Betsy Loyless made today's Dirty Dozen announcement at the Youngstown Club.
"Jim Traficant has a dirty record on clean water," Loyless said. "Ohio's 17th Congressional district faces some real challenges on issues like polluted rivers and toxics in the land, air and water. However, much of the progress made on addressing these issues has come in spite of Jim Traficant's voting record in Congress. Over 15 years in Congress, his voting record has gone from respectable to irrefutably poor. In 1999, Traficant voted for conservation and public health protections only 19 percent of the time. That's a failing grade in anyone's book."
Loyless said that Traficant was named to the Dirty Dozen because of his votes in Congress to weaken clean water protections, to undermine the public's right to know about toxics in their community and to undermine public health protections.
Traficant is the first Congressional candidate of the 2000 election cycle to be named by the LCV Action Fund to its Dirty Dozen list. The group is airing a television advertisement titled "Bad News" in the Youngstown market in an effort to encourage voters to cast their ballot against Traficant in the March 7 primary election. In the advertisement, LCV Action Fund promotes Democratic state Senator Bob Hagan as the pro-environment choice in the 17th district Congressional race.
In 1996 and 1998, LCV Action Fund's Dirty Dozen campaigns helped defeat sixteen anti-environmental candidates for Congress. LCV Action Fund is planning to spend over $3 million on its 2000 campaign activities, over $500,000 more than in 1998.
The nonprofit League of Conservation Voters is the bipartisan political voice for the environment. LCV is the only conservation organization dedicated full-time to informing the public and holding Members of Congress accountable for their environmental votes. The LCV Action Fund is LCV's political action committee that helps to elect Democratic and Republican pro-environment candidates and to defeat anti-environment candidates through the Dirty Dozen campaigns. To learn more about LCV, the Dirty Dozen campaigns or Congressional environmental voting records, access the LCV web page at www.lcv.org/dirtydozen.
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