Republican McGrady outscores Democratic Senate leader Nesbitt on environmental votes

Chuck McGrady, a freshman Republican state representative from Henderson County, outscored the leader of the Democratic minority in the state Senate, Buncombe’s Martin L. Nesbitt, during a year that the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters said was the worst for environmental issues in the last 12 years.

Nesbitt, an Asheville lawyer who has been in the General Assembly since the 1980s, still has a better 2009-2011 average of 76 than the score of 58 the league gave to McGrady, a former Henderson County commissioner, in his first term in the House of Representatives. But in 2011, Nesbitt brought his overall average down by scoring 50.

Former Asheville mayor Patsy Keever, now a Democrat in the House, had the highest score in the Buncombe delegation, obtaining a mark of 92. Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe, was second, siding with the league on key votes 83 percent of the time. First-term Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, scored a 17 and Rep. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, just eight. On the scorecard just released by the league, the average pro-conservation score in the House was 43 percent, down from 67 percent last year. The Senate’s average score was 27, down from 69 last year. They are the lowest scores since the group’s first scorecard in 1999.

Dan Crawford, the League’s director of governmental relations, attributes the lower scores to the legislative leadership changes at the beginning of the last session, and says it’s bad for North Carolina business.

“One of the things that brings business to North Carolina is this great quality of life that we have here. People want to bring businesses to states that have a good environment.”

He says among the contributors to the failing grades is a proposal to do away with regulations on drilling for oil or natural gas along the coast. That bill was vetoed by the governor, but supporters say they are one vote away from overriding the veto.

The scores were based on each lawmaker’s voting record in 2011 on environmental issues. They were given 100 points for voting in favor of conservation-minded policies, and zeroes for voting against them. Now that it’s an election year, Crawford hopes people will pay special attention to those votes.

“Voters need to take a look at their members. They need to see how their members voted on environmental issues, and if they don’t like what they see, they need to be prepared to work for change in 2012.”

He says another law for which the State Assembly got a failing grade is one that expands the “cut zones” around billboards, eliminating more trees to increase the visibility of the advertising.

Scorecards for this year (and past years) are online at nclcv.org.

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