Boston, MA- The Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters (MLEV), the non-partisan political voice for the environment, and the Sierra Club, the nation’s largest grassroots environmental organization, announced today their endorsement of Representative Jim Marzilli for the 4th Middlesex senate race. The groups cited Marzilli’s strong environmental record and commitment to clean energy, combating global warming, and protecting families from toxics.
Hailing him as a leader who has relentlessly pushed for innovative and sustainable energy solutions and worked to safeguard our parks, Phil Sego, the Massachusetts Sierra Club’s Political Chair, said “Jim Marzilli has been a true leader in his support for the environment.” He continued, “From his support of clean air, clean water, and protection of our environment, he has exhibited vision — and the skills necessary to make that vision a reality.”
Representative Marzilli has been a consistent voice for the environment as a representative, both voting for environmental legislation and introducing scores of pro-environmental bills. This year he introduced a comprehensive clean energy and global warming bill that will move the Commonwealth on the path of to energy security.
“As a senator, Jim Marzilli will work for clean energy solutions and to protect his constituents from toxics. With the immensity of the problems we face, we need a leader like Jim who is willing to stand up and take action on global warming,” said MLEV Executive Director Lora Wondolowski.
Marzilli received a score of 103 out of 110 on MLEV’s 2006 Environmental Scorecard, which tracks the votes of Massachusetts legislators on key environmental bills. In addition to voting for mercury reduction and energy efficiency, he has sponsored many bills that promote common-sense environmental progress.
For more info go to www.mlev.org or www.sierraclubmass.org
I have heard him describe his house and what he and his wife have done to make their homes environmentally sound and it was pretty awesome. I don’t remember all of it but he talked about the reclamation of all rainwater, the use of compact fluorescent light bulbs where ever light bulbs are needed, double paned windows, the positioning of windows to get the most sun, and so forth. It was pretty impressive.
Yeah becuase changing some light bulbs is a reason to put a guy in the State Senate. Hey I swept my Kitchen floor last night maybe I should run for Congress.
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Having one of the top ten worst attendance records in the house is not leadership and at least two of the reps running are on that list. Its time we had a full time Senator that represented real people and not just the few that gave him money.
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We need a full time hard working senator who will be there when the important votes are cast. Just becuase more people know of Marzelli doesnt mean more people like Marzilli.
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Billerica for Donnelly
of poor attendance here, you should cite your sources.
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And ridiculing CFLs is just ignorant. CFLs provide the same light as incandescent bulbs, but use 75% less electricity. That means that if
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The article I’ve quoted goes on to note that
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Since most homes have dozens of bulbs, the potential is there to realize many multiples of these benefits by replacing more of the incandescent bulbs in our homes, businesses and public buildings with CFLs.
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Ken Donnelly may be a nice guy, but just because you like someone doesn’t mean they’ll make a competent legislator and confront the critical issues facing us. Marzilli won the endorsement of the environmental groups because he gets it. He’s the guy in this race with the legislative experience and policy ideas to make a difference.
You don’t reflect well on Ken. He is an incredibly nice guy. You are just snide.
And the “attendance record” you are attacking not only comes from the year his mother died and had a difficult final illness [I cannot say to what extent this impacted attendance at so-called “formal sessions” where roll call votes are taken and noted] but:
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1. This is only for attendance at full formal sessions where roll call votes are taken. Since almost every peice of legislation passed at these “formal sessions” passed by a vote along the lines of 143 to 17 or so – missing one of these so-called votes changes nothing, and harms the 23rd M
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iddlesex District not at all.
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2. No attendance is taken on voice votes, or informal sessions.
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3. There is NO cable or television coverage of anything at the State Legislature – though there was cable coverage by CNN up until about September 2006. {venting a pet peeve]
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4. Attendance at committee sessions is not made public.
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5. Most real “work” is done at the committee level by legislators.
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One way to guage how “hard working” a legislator is, is to go to OpenMass or Mass.gov – the General Court site and check legislation filed and sponsored. Jim Marzilli’s record holds up well in this regard.
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None of this is “anti-Donnelly” who has a fine record of civic engagement and public service – I do not need to knock your candidate, or be nasty to promote my choice of candidate. You do your candidate no service by a lack of civility, in my opinion.
It was PBS/WGBH, not CNN.
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You CAN ascertain committee attendance by enquiring at the committee office. I’ve done it for oppo research. And you are 100% correct that all meaningful work is done at the committee level, since Finneran ‘broke’ the debate process on the floor.
I watched as one by one the cameras broke down – and were neither fixed, nor replaced. For someone who does trial work as I do, watching the faces, the body language, the ‘who spoke with whom, when’ was informative, and I would prefer live coverage of the floor work in both houses and committees, too. The actual cost was not all that high [bet someone here can tell me exactly what the cost was].
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And while it may well be possible to go “committee to committee” to check attendance, not only is that a major time investment, but doing that does not in and of itself show when two committees met at the same time, or which meetings “did work” and which were mere rubber stamps. I have been to one hour hearings where 22 bills were “heard”. Right.
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I also am well aware that the “real work” done by committees may be done by one or two staffers for some committees. I truly see progressively less openness in the process, which concerns me as well as greater difficulty for even an elected representative to have impact, depending on the issue, unless that representative is “wired in”. Watching certain issues as I have for four years now, I have some real concerns.
One of the biggest challenges we have ahead of us, if we are serious about global warming, is getting people to significantly change their behaviors regarding carbon emissions. I would like my next State Senator (and all elected leaders, for that matter) to set an example and be an outspoken advocate in this regard. We need to get beyond the easy things like changing light bulbs and washing clothes in cold water and get to those things that people are more resistant to do but will have as big or a bigger impact: Further significant reductions in home electricity and heating use. Reducing auto travel. Making that next vehicle purchase a fuel-efficient one. Reducing our personal, business, and government air travel. Recycling and composting to reduce waste. Taking packaging waste and manufacturing / transportation carbon emissions into account when making consumer choices.
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It would be quite interesting to get a measure of each candidate’s personal carbon footprint along with a personal reduction plan. The Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition (GWAC) has a personal carbon calculator on their web site. This calculator takes into account carbon emissions from home energy use (electric, gas, oil, etc.) and personal transportation energy use (auto, airline). Furthermore it gives tips on how to reduce these numbers. Even more tips can be found via GWAC’s Low Carbon Diet program (see the main web page).
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Any of the candidates willing to do this and tell us their plans for reduction?
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Of course, you do not need to be a candidate to do this exercise. Gather up your energy bills for the last year and try it. You might have one of those “I didn’t realize…” moments like I did (regarding air travel).
but to echo another blogger when I posted the Mass AFL-CIO endorsement of Donnelly – this is news? Rep. Marzilli has a great enviromental record. The only big news would have been if he had NOT gotten the endorsements.
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While these endorsements are a good indicator of the candidates’ records, this is a GOTV election. Coming one wek after the regular final election, this primary is about ID and pull (as was the Tsongas/Ogo race).
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Mail, call, knock and pull. Old fashion politics.
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Don’t see the need to knock any candidate in this race.
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Disclaimer – my union endorsed Donnelly, I wrote him a personal check and will be working hard for him.