Names Brown to trademark Dirty Dozen program

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) today announced a nearly $400,000 television ad campaign highlighting that the out-of-state oil billionaire Koch Brothers and Big Oil support former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who has a long record of voting for special tax breaks for the oil industry. The ad, “Out-of-State,” will begin airing next week across New Hampshire.

“The out-of-state oil billionaire Koch Brothers are behind a multimillion dollar campaign to elect out-of-state Scott Brown so he can resume defending big oil companies in the Senate. New Hampshire taxpayers will follow Massachussetts’ lead and reject Scott Brown,” said Daniel J. Weiss, LCV Senior Vice President for Campaigns.

The ad highlights that Brown took nearly half a million dollars in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry over the course of his career, while repeatedly voting to protect billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies for oil companies at a time of record profits for the industry. Despite their repeated claims to the contrary, the Koch Brothers and their front group, Americans for Prosperity, worked to keep these oil industry giveaways on the books to pad their bottom line. Koch Brothers-backed groups have also run a false attack ad against Senator Jeanne Shaheen to help elect Brown. Documentation for LCV’s ad is available here.   

Additionally, Brown was just added to LCV’s trademark Dirty Dozen program this cycle. The Dirty Dozen targets candidates— regardless of party affiliation — who consistently side against the environment and are running in races in which LCV has a serious chance to affect the outcome. Last cycle, LCV defeated 11 of the 12 Dirty Dozen candidates.

Earlier this year, LCV launched a television ad campaign highlighting that Brown took thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from oil companies Chevron, Conoco Phillips, and Exxon just weeks before voting to protect Big Oil’s special subsidies. In July, LCV Victory Fund launched a television ad highlighting that the Koch Brothers are backing millions of dollars in attack ads supporting Brown.

In 2012, LCV conducted a $1.1 million campaign to communicate with tens of thousands of Massachusetts voters at their doors and through the mail to help defeat Brown in Massachusetts. LCV Action Fund also raised or contributed more than $134,000 for Elizabeth Warren through its GiveGreen program, the only bundling website devoted exclusively to raising money for environmental champions and candidates.

Brown’s voting record earned him a feeble 38% lifetime score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard. The non-partisan Scorecard is a nationally accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental and clean energy issues. Based on key environmental votes in the House and Senate, it is often used by the media to quickly describe a Member’s position. For more information, visit scorecard.lcv.org. 

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Paid for by the League of Conservation Voters, www.lcv.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.