Moscow Mitch Pledging Public Lands Vote, But Green Paint Likely Not Enough To Save Gardner, Daines

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A recent survey by the Keating-Onsight-Melanson group of Democratic polling firms had Gardner losing to former Gov. John Hickenlooper, the leading Democrat, 54% to 36%. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who is term-limited, is the leading Democrat in that state's Senate primary, polled at 46% in last month's Montana State University survey, to Daines' 39%. Both Bullock and Hickenlooper support full funding for LWCF.

"John Hickenlooper thinks funding LWCF is long overdue — and he'd go further by passing the CORE Act and acting on climate change, two Colorado priorities that Senator Gardner refuses to address as he rubber-stamps the Trump administration's largest rollback of protected public lands in U.S. history," Alyssa Roberts, a Hickenlooper spokeswoman, said in a statement.

She was referring to the House-passed "Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act," H.R. 823, from Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), which would institute a number of new land protection measures in the state. Andrew Romanoff, the former Colorado House speaker who is challenging Hickenlooper for the Democratic nomination as a progressive, said he's glad that the LWCF bill is moving along, but he denounced the politics at play, saying McConnell and Trump are "pretty naked in their motives."

"Cory Gardner has had 10 years now in Washington, voting against the environment, gutting protections for air and water, blocking climate action. If he starts doing the right thing now, that's great. Doesn't change my view of his record," Romanoff told E&E News. Gardner's campaign accused critics of playing politics by not recognizing his role in moving the legislation forward. "The Democrats are dismissing Senator Gardner's ability to secure a vote on full, permanent LWCF funding in an attempt to distract from the fact that Gardner accomplished something they failed to do for decades," spokeswoman Meghan Graf said.

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https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063298593