“We’re finding unprecedented levels of support for open space, funding for clean water and air. COVID has become the dominant issue of the campaign, but it’s made environmental issues and the public health that those issues underlie more important.”
McNeil said his group was partnering with other environmental organizations, like Clean Water Action and PennEnvironment, to ultimately put closer to $2 million into races around the state. Similar independent expenditure groups spent nearly half a million dollars between May and mid-September of this year, according to a Pennsylvania Department of State report, figures that will surely rise as Election Day nears.
Christopher Nicholas, a veteran Republican political consultant based in Pennsylvania, questioned how impactful the spending would be when spread across numerous districts. He said while clean water or air is popular with voters, government regulations can be less so.
“I think environmental issues always poll well, but the question is how people rank them in order of importance with other issues,” he said. “Or if they think the only way to improve the environment is with more government regulation and spending.”
Conservative Super PACs have also targeted suburban legislative races, spending big to oust Democrats in the Philly suburbs who’ve been critical of the Mariner East Pipeline.
While analysts give Republicans an edge for retaining control of the General Assembly, Nicholas acknowledged certain suburban districts and possibly the State House were potentially up for grabs. However, he said environmental issues mean different things in different parts of the state.
“Pipeline construction can be a sore point. In places like Chester County, for example, that has corresponded to a rise in fortunes of the Democrats and a decline for Republicans,” he said. “But energy sector jobs are some of the best paying around … In Southwest Pennsylvania especially, being against energy jobs is politically unpopular.”