NYT: Challengers Defeated in Sierra Club Voting

[DeepModem Mom]

Establishment Candidates Defeat Challengers in Sierra Club Voting
By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: April 22, 2004


WASHINGTON, April 21 — After weeks of highly publicized warnings that anti-immigration outsiders were trying to take over the venerable Sierra Club, the club's members on Wednesday overwhelmingly supported all five candidates put forward by the group's formal nominating committee.

The three candidates whose participation became the focal point of the controversy were former Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado, a prominent critic of immigration policies; David Pimentel, a noted Cornell University entomologist; and Frank Morris, the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. But the three finished at least 95,000 votes behind the winners, placing 11th, 12th and 15th in the race that had a total of 17 candidates for the five three-year terms.

The election attracted the votes of 22 percent of the group's 757,000 members, the highest percentage to vote in three decades. The campaign itself had been marked by widespread accusations that outsiders were trying to hijack the 15-member board. Once in control, current club leaders asserted, these candidates intended to use the environmental organization to promote anti-immigration views.

In interviews last month, Mr. Pimentel and Mr. Morris strongly disputed that characterization, though Mr. Lamm agreed in an interview that curbs on immigration were his top priority....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/national/22SIER.html

[Piperay]

1. It was the first time

I had ever voted in one of their elections. I am so glad that bunch was defeated, they would have ended up ruining the Sierra Club.

[Amerpie]

2. Good news

Finally a breath of sanity amidst an increasingly Orwellian society.

[Judi Lynn]

3. What a relief!

From the article:

.......Once in control, current club leaders asserted, these candidates intended to use the environmental organization to promote anti-immigration views.

In interviews last month, Mr. Pimentel and Mr. Morris strongly disputed that characterization, though Mr. Lamm agreed in an interview that curbs on immigration were his top priority.

Whatever the reality of the accusations, the hot-button issue of immigration and accusations that some of the dissidents' supporters had links to racist groups gave the election a high national profile. That prompted the intervention of the actor Robert Redford and the liberal advocacy group moveon.org on behalf of those candidates who were overwhelmingly elected in the race that ended at midday Wednesday.

"This is a strong mandate for the board to stick to its core agenda and mission protecting our planet," said Larry Fahn, the president of the Sierra Club board. "It was a clear repudiation of those wanting the club to get involved in the immigration debate." And, in a comment directly echoed by two winning candidates, he said he hoped the energy devoted to the club's election would carry over into a national effort to defeat President Bush.
(snip)

I can't believe that kind of overbearing, crude attempt to commandeer a dedicated, and damned decent group of people and turn it to a totally diseased purpose.

Justice prevailed, for once!

[Frances]

4. I voted for the first time

I appreciated getting news from moveon and from people on DU

There were those on DU who were for the anti-immigration candidates but they were in the minority

[willmcw]

5. Siera Club Election

Thanks to everyone who voted in this year's Sierra Club BOD election. It may have been the most important organization election in the history of the conservation movement.

I hope that there is an even great turnout of Sierra Club members at the federal polls in November!

Cheers,
Will McWhinney

[newyawker99]

6. Hi willmcw!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ldoolin]

9. Congratulations to all who voted!

If you voted for the Groundswell endorsed slate, THIS is what you voted for:

The Sierra Club is threatening to disband a Utah chapter whose leaders are speaking out against the U.S. threat of invading Iraq, openly defying a decision by the venerable environmental group to avoid a formal stance on the war issue.

The board members of the Sierra Club's 175-member Glen Canyon chapter in southern Utah are challenging what they call a gag order on antiwar opinions imposed by the executive board of the San Francisco-based organization, the nation's oldest environmental group....

...Citing the need for unity, Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director, has threatened to remove the Utah activists from their regional ruling board and disband their group.

entire article at http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1203-06.htm

[SharonAnn]

13. Sorry, I agree with Pope. There are other organizations that

that these people can join to express their anti-war views. The Sierra Club should stay focused on environmental issues.

[ldoolin]

14. hmm

I generally think of U.S. intervention in the Middle East that pertains largely to oil to be an environmental issue. Ditto with the high level of legal immigration into the U.S. right now.

If the national Sierra Club leadership doesn't think those are environmental issues, they are mistaken. I can sorta see why they wouldn't want to take an official stand on either one, although to me it looks like political expediency is the reason, or trying to maintain the club's "viability" with D.C. insiders.

HOWEVER, regardless of whether the national club chooses to address those issues, if individual Sierra Club members or local groups decide to address them, what's the problem? Carl Pope would impose a gag rule on them and even expel them from the club. And that is where I truly get enraged. This isn't a dictatorship. The problem is Carl Pope.

[ldoolin]

7. Demagoguery prevailed

The only thing this election proved is if one faction floods the media with planted, one-sided, fabricated allegations, a lot of people including far too many "liberals" will believe it.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that liberals are just as bad as conservatives in that regard.

Here's a question to ask. Why did 100,000+ people who obviously don't usually vote in Sierra Club elections all vote for the same five people, without varying their votes at all to vote for other good people, like, say, Ed Dobson? What that tells me is that they cast an uninformed vote, had no idea who to vote for, and were being blindly led by MoveOn or Groundswell. That disgusts me.

[Frances]

8. I'm curious

What have you ever done for the environment?

[rasputin1952]

10. As a member of the Sierra Club...

I take what it stands for very seriously. It has been around for a long time, and 20% of the members voted in this past election. I would say that easily, 80% don't have the faintest idea who these people are, except for what the SC puts out in its info brochures.

Bottom line...The SC does some pretty amazing things for the enviroment, and I'm proud to be a part of it. I would rather see my dues and other funding go to environmental concerns, (in the SC), than political rivalry.

O8)

[Bridget Burke]

11. So, who did you vote for?

I confess, myself, that I was unable to vote. My membership had expired & I was awaiting the result of this election before re-upping.

Since the stealth nativists were defeated, I'll gladly send in my money. Overpopulation is a worldwide problem that has great impact on the environment--and on the quality of life for many people. But it won't be solved by turning the USA into a gated community. I'll be able to vote if another takeover is attempted.

[ldoolin]

12. If 40% of the club holds a view why can't 40% of the BOD hold that view?

Well, the very fact that you are calling them "stealth nativists" and using the word "takeover" only tells me that you don't know much at all about who the candidates really are or about their records.

I voted for:

One "stealth nativist" who is a renowned entomologist and opponent of pesticide use whose work has been frequently cited in Sierra Club publications, and has been a Sierra Club member since 1993;

One "stealth nativist" who is the Los Angeles River Committee chair, sits on the club's California Executive Committee, was instrumental in saving wetlands in the Los Angeles area, and has been a Sierra Club member since 1993;

One "stealth nativist" who was Democratic governor of Colorado for three terms, first joined the Sierra Club in the 1960s, and recently rejoined;

One person who is not a "stealth nativist" but had the guts to speak out strongly against the McCarthyite smear tactics being used against the so-called "stealth nativists"; she took a stand and won me over;

And one former Board of Directors member who was David Brower's choice to replace him after he resigned from the Board of Directors, who is definitely NOT a "stealth nativist", who unlike the other nominating commiteee candidates has a record of fairness and inclusiveness toward all club factions including SUSPS, and who puts high priority on issues that are also priorities for me, such as Glen Canyon Dam removal and raising the bar for club political endorsements instead of allowing the club to automatically endorse Democrats no matter how bad their environmental records.