Das Williams misrepresents my record
By admin on Jun 2, 2010 in What's New
For the Ventura County Star article on the attack mailer from my opponent, go here.
Dear Supporters, Colleagues and Friends,
I thought I knew Das Williams better than this, but perhaps I should have known better after he jumped into the State Assembly race after previously endorsing me – because of my opposition to the PXP oil drilling deal.
Now he has stooped lower than I imagined he could. Today voters received a mailer paid for and personally authorized by Das which attacks me for allegedly taking a trip to Australia with Arnold Schwarzenegger and oil and gas executives.
The problem is that this is patently false. Not only did the Governor not go on the trip, but Das fails to mention that I went on the trip at the invitation of the Natural Resources Defense Council as an opponent to unsafe and poorly conceived LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) terminals that were planned for our coastline. In fact, I came back from the fact-finding trip and led the opposition, on behalf of the community, to the LNG terminal planned for Oxnard.
For Das to even suggest otherwise is nothing less than shameful. But his conduct and poor judgment over the course of this campaign has gotten worse and worse, as he desperately tries to mislead voters and conceal his own record of support for the first new offshore oil drilling lease in 41 years.
So if you receive Das’ campaign attack mailer, or talk to anybody who has questions, please keep the following facts in mind:
1. In 2004, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national non-profit where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. serves as Senior Attorney, asked me to be their environmental representative on a fact-finding trip to South Korea and Australia with officials from the first Schwarzenegger Administration to study Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).
2. As the leading LNG critic in California, I was the lone environmental watchdog to ensure that the concerns of environmentalists and communities were represented during the trip.
3. Two days before the trip, I led a coalition of 25 environmental groups to Sacramento to address Schwarzenegger Administration officials on our concerns regarding their support for building LNG terminals in California. Representatives from NRDC, Environmental Defense Center, and Sierra Club California were among those present during the hour and a half meeting.
4. I came back from the trip to South Korea and Australia and then led the successful 4 1/2-year fight to stop the largest mining company in the world, BHP Billiton, from building the first LNG terminal off the Ventura coast.
5. For that fight, I was honored by the Environmental Defense Center with their Coastal Hero award.
Das totally knowingly falsified my record and my role on this trip. He even had the nerve to use an excerpt from an article (see here) – and leave out of his mailer the part that clearly described me as the “only LNG critic” on the trip.
And to top it off, Das’ campaign even Photoshopped a picture of me they took from my website and put a champagne flute in my hand! (Talk about juvenile campaign tactics…)
For those of you who worked with me on defeating the BHP Billiton LNG terminal, I know this mailer must be deeply upsetting to you. We worked very hard together for many years to defeat this risky, dirty and dangerous project. So, please feel free to express your feelings regarding this baseless and irresponsible attack by a desperate opponent. You can write letters to the editors of local newspapers by clicking on the list below, and you can help me get a response mailer out by contributing immediately to my campaign by going here: DONATE
P.S. Here is what Joel Reynolds, Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, had to say in response to Williams’ misleading mailer:
“Susan Jordan went to Australia in connection with her work with NRDC in opposition to proposed LNG terminals along the Southern California coast. Her environmental integrity is impeccable, and Susan Jordan always does her homework. She was a leader in the campaign to defeat a misguided proposal for an LNG terminal near Oxnard and, working with local residents, she persuaded the state of California to reject it, to the surprise and chagrin of one of the largest corporations in the world.”
