Tea party activists across the state are rallying in support of Proposition 23, a measure on the Nov. 2 ballot that would suspend California’s landmark global warming legislation, known as AB 32.
With energy and climate change legislation stalled in Congress, the national fight over global warming and what to do about it is centered on California, which is moving ahead with ambitious plans to curb greenhouse gases, diversify the state’s energy supply and reduce its use of fossil fuels.
The Yes on 23 campaign is financed primarily by Valero Energy and Tesoro, two Texas-based oil refiners. The campaign also received a $1 million donation from Flint Hill Resources, a Kansas petrochemical company that is a subsidiary of Koch Industries. Brothers Charles and David Koch fund a complex web of tea party organizations, detailed in a recent article in The New Yorker magazine.
The tea party is an amorphous movement with many offshoots and splinter groups whose efforts nationally have had surprising success, but the scope of its support for Proposition 23 is hard to quantify.
However, Joe Wierzbicki, an executive at the Sacramento public relations firm Russo Marsh & Rogers who is also a coordinator with the group Tea Party Express, says that tea party activists in California have coalesced around Proposition 23 because they are not enthusiastic about the governor’s race, and their preferred candidate for the U.S. Senate, Chuck DeVore, lost the Republican primary to Carly Fiorina.
“There’s energetic backing for Prop. 23 among the tea party networks in the state,” said Wierzbicki. “With polls showing a dead heat for Prop. 23, I think you’ll see the difference being made up by the intensity and passion among the electorate. Right now the passion is with Prop. 23 supporters. That bodes well for the measure.”
A recent Los Angeles Times/USC poll found voters equally for and against Proposition 23, but one-fifth of likely voters were undecided. A Sept. 26 Field Poll found that opponents of Proposition 23 led by 45 to 34 percent, with support for Proposition 23 strongest among Republicans.
Last week, tea party activists gathered to back the proposition at the Fresno offices of Pacific Gas & Electric, where Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, co-chairman of the Yes on 23 campaign, was one of the speakers. The event focused on PG&E because the utility, which is unpopular with many Central Valley customers, has come out against the ballot initiative.
“Someone from Yes on 23 asked if we could help them with an event and we said sure,” said Brad Roltgen, chairman of the Central Valley Tea Party, who said about 60 to 65 people attended. “We’re open to working with anyone who supports our key values of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free markets.”
The tea party is often characterized as a grass-roots movement. But some consumer advocates say the involvement of tea party activists in the Yes on 23 campaign appears to be highly orchestrated.
“When I see senior citizens out on the street corner holding ‘Thank You Valero’ signs, it just doesn’t jibe,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. “Clearly the tea party is being used, and they are becoming the ground army for the oil refineries. Senior citizens would not come out to defend Valero unless there’s some formal structure to get them out there.”
Shirlee Pierce, a tea party activist in Solano County, says she contacted the Yes on 23 campaign on her own after doing research about the ballot initiative on the Internet. She’s now organizing people to hand out Yes on 23 fliers at a Fairfield Safeway.
“To begin with, nobody knows if there really is global warming or if it is just a big scam to enrich the solar companies,” said Pierce, who is retired. “And if the oil companies are fined for polluting, guess whose gas prices will go up?”
AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, was passed by the Legislature and signed into law four years ago by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of Proposition 23’s most passionate opponents. AB 32 lays out a plan to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020, and advocates say the law has helped spur the creation of cleantech jobs in a state struggling with a 12.4 percent unemployment rate.
Anita Mangels, the Yes on 23 spokeswoman, said she doesn’t have a lot of direct involvement with the tea party.
“The tea party has a life of its own,” Mangels said. “They are very supportive of Prop. 23, and we’re grateful to have that support.”
Contact Dana Hull at 408-920-2706. Follow her at Twitter.com/danahull.
