The VALCV was formed in the spring of 2000, to give a strong political voice and electoral force for conservation and preservation. VALCV is the 30th of the state LCVs to form across the country, and is modeled on the National LCV headquartered in Washington, DC -- which focuses on conservation at the national level. Significant progress has been made since 2000, when conservation was not even a factor in Virginia elections, and elected officials rarely considered the environmental impacts of their decisions.
We have summarized the VaLCV data set, to get a better statistical picture of how our local delegates have performed on conservation issues. All of the local House of Delegates seats, currently held by Republicans, are being strongly contested by Democratic challengers in November. While historically the Valley has been a Republican stronghold, there was strong evidence in 2008, of broad support on conservation issues in the general public west of the Blue Ridge. This is likely to be a key factor in the pivotal moderate middle of the electorate. Moderate Republicans and Independents are generally concerned about air and water quality, unchecked sprawl, and protection of natural resources, in this special place, the great Valley of Virginia.
Delegates of the Shenandoah Valley Region & Opponents
26th - Matt Lohr (R) 26th vs. Gene Hart (D)
25th - Steve Landes (R) 25th vs. Dr. Greg Marrrow (D)
24th - Ben Cline (R) 24th vs. Jeff Price (D)
20th - Chris Saxman (R) (not running) -- Richard Bell (R) vs. Erik Curren (D)
15th - Todd Gilbert (R) vs. John Lesinski (D)
Table 1. The rank order of local delegates in decreasing order of support for conservation issues, with 2009, 2008 and long-term scores.
Name 2009% 2008% Long-Term%
Landes 36% 56% 49%
Cline 33% 25% 37%
Lohr 30% 43% 40%
Saxman 25% 50% 40%
Gilbert 8% 71% 39%
In Table 2, you can see that most Republican delegates were less supportive on Conservation issues than Democrats. All of our local delegates fell below the 50th percentile (median) in 2009.
Table 2 - 2009 Va LCV Voting Behavior on Key Conservation Issues
100%= supported all Va LCV issues
Median Score = 41%
Delegate,Dist,Party 2009 Voting%
Ebbin 49 D 100
Englin 45 D 100
McClellan 71 D 100
Plum 36 D 100
Sickles 43 D 100
Toscano 57 D 100
Amundson 44 D 92
Brink 48 D 92
Eisenberg 47 D 92
Hull 38 D 92
Pollard 99 D 92
Scott, J 53 D 92
Shannon 35 D 92
Bulova 37 D 85
Morrissey 74 D 85
Herring 46 D 83
Marsden 41 D 83
Valentine 23 D 83
Caputo 67 D 82
Alexander 89 D 77
Bouchard 83 D 77
Lewis 100 D 77
Vanderhye 34 D 77
Athey 18 R 75
Frederick 52 R 75
Spruill 77 D 75
Armstrong 10 D 73
Tyler 75 D 73
Shuler 12 D 67
Watts 39 D 67
McQuinn 70 D 64
Melvin 80 D 64
Ward 92 D 64
Poisson 32 D 63
Dance 63 D 62
Mathieson 21 D 62
Hall 69 D 60
Miller, P 87 D 60
Ware, O 11 D 60
Howell, A 90 D 58
Nichols 51 D 58
Phillips 2 D 54
Barlow 64 D 50
Marshall, R 13 R 50
Cole 88 R 46
Rust 86 R 46
Lingamfelter 31 R 45
Bowling 3 D 42
Crockett-Stark 6 R 42
Johnson 4 D 42 __________ median - 50th percentile
Gear 91 R 40
Fralin 17 R 38
Nutter 7 R 38
Scott, E 30 R 38
Hugo 40 R 36
Landes 25 R 36
Abbitt 59 I 33
BaCote 95 D 33
Cline 24 R 33
May 33 R 33
Albo 42 R 31
Joannou 79 D 31
Putney 19 I 31
Lohr 26 R 30
Griffith 8 R 27
Peace 97 R 27
Purkey 82 R 27
Tata 85 R 27
Byron 22 R 25
Carrico 5 R 25
Hamilton 93 R 25
Hargrove 55 R 25
Howell, W 28 R 25
Iaquinto 84 R 25
Knight 81 R 25
Loupassi 68 R 25
Massie 72 R 25
Merricks 16 R 25
Morgan 98 R 25
Oder 94 R 25
Saxman 20 R 25
Wright 61 R 25
Bell 58 R 23
Cosgrove 78 R 23
Ingram 62 R 23
Jones, SC 76 R 23
Marshall, D 14 R 23
Miller, J 50 R 23
O'Bannon 73 R 23
Orrock 54 R 23
Pogge 96 R 23
Poindexter 9 R 23
Ware, L 65 R 21
Kilgore 1 R 17
Nixon 27 R 17
Cox 66 R 15
Sherwood 29 R 15
Gilbert 15 R 8
Hogan 60 R 8
Janis 56 R 8
There was a significant drop in conservation scores from 2008 to 2009. This reflected both the issues at hand, which by nature vary year-to-year, and the noticeable conflict in the General Assembly in an important election year for Governor and House of Delegates in 2009.
If voters are concerned about conservation issues, they will have to put some new faces in the House of Delegates, in order to make progress on legislation that supports conservation of Virgina's clean air, clean water, preservation of our heritage, and protection of our farmland and forests.
Apparently, "conservative" does not equal "conservation".
