Garrett: Mr. 8% Environment

After Representative Scott Garrett openly chastised those concerned about the environment, this report should come as no surprise: Garrett gets an 8% pro-environment grade from Environment New Jersey. This is a 7% drop from his score in 2007.

Garrett being labelled outside of the mainstream by his opponents is nothing new, and hard to quantify at times. That point is often raised by his supporters as well as the traditional press. This provides such a quantifiable example.

The entire NJ Delegation, with Garrett's score included, averaged 83% of the reviewed votes. To make matters more interesting, with a larger sample, the national average is 58%. Garrett is a full 50 percentage points below the average.

I find it hard to believe that somebody who grew up in Sussex County could have such a horrendous environmental voting record. However, that's what we've got. There was an impassioned plea over on Blue Jersey not to cede the environmental issues to Garrett. How could the Shulman campaign with results like this?

Thanks to Teddy Roosevelt's understanding that in order to protect hunting and fishing for both sustenance and sport, you need to protect the environment, the modern conservation and environmental protection movement was started. Environmentalism used to be a Republican ideal. However, like so many things, the Conservative mold from which Garrett comes apparently is no longer concerned with supporting such things.