Greenpeace USA helped organize a demonstration against the fossil fuel industry, including oil drilling near homes and schools, in Wilmington, Calif., earlier this year.
Photo: Brittany Murray/Zuma PressWHERE DO DEMOCRATS STAND ON CLIMATE POLICIES? The party’s convention this week left some environmentalists confused and concerned about the path the party plans to take if it wins the presidency and the Senate, with key policy makers contradicting each other on policy prescriptions. The party’s left flank used a side session on climate change to make the case for why the Green New Deal is necessary and popular, even in purple districts and swing states. But in a bid for party unity, Sen. Bernie Sanders noted in his keynote address Joe Biden’s plan to transition to 100% clean electricity in the next 15 years, slightly slower than the Green New Deal’s timeline but still generally praised by environmental groups.
But starker gaps developed not between Biden and the left, but Biden and the party’s own platform. Biden’s climate plan, along with the Biden-Sanders unity task force and the 2016 party platform, called for ending subsidies for fossil fuels. Yet that provision was struck from this year’s platform, a move condemned by environmentalists and members of the 2016 platform committee. “Hoping this was just a mistake, because ending fossil fuel subsidies is a no-brainer,” said Bill McKibben, who helped write the 2016 language. Greenpeace USA graded the party’s platform a C+, in contrast to their B+ grade for Biden. The American Petroleum Institute has long argued that tax policies that allow oil and gas companies to write off certain production costs are needed to “close the income gap and create jobs.”
Biden “continues to be committed to ending U.S. fossil fuel subsidies,” said Biden policy director Stef Feldman, emphasizing the gap between the campaign and the party platform.
Reading the tea leaves: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee spoke at the climate session, and said he was “tickled pink he could stay home and be with his grandchildren,” rather than come to Washington, D.C. as president, after his primary campaign sputtered. Some climate hawks would like to see him come in a Biden administration, perhaps as Interior secretary.
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OHIO REPUBLICAN Rep. Mike Turner tries to turn a scandal for the state GOP against his Democratic opponent, Desiree Tims. Turner, a nine-term congressman, has been outraised repeatedly by Tims in his Dayton-area district, which President Trump carried by seven points in 2016. His new ad tries to tie Tims to the recent racketeering indictments of Ohio GOP leaders, including statehouse Speaker Larry Householder, by noting that she has received donations from individuals in New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and was a registered lobbyist. Tims lobbied for the League of Conservation Voters. None of the donations to her campaign or her work as a lobbyist was related to the Ohio GOP scandal, in which everyone charged has pleaded not guilty save Householder, who hasn’t yet entered a plea.
“Republicans using a huge GOP scandal against a Democrat is…something,” said nonpartisan election analyst Nathan Gonzales. A Tims spokeswoman dismissed the ad as “cheap campaign tactics.”
POLITICAL ADVERTISING ON GOOGLE is up nearly eleven-fold from 2018, and presidential campaign ads account for roughly 75% of that spending, according to an analysis by progressive group Tech for Campaigns. In the period May 24-July 12, the Trump campaign outspent Biden $15 million to $8.6 million on Google ads. The type of ads each party buys differs sharply: 82% of the growth in image ad spending came from Republicans, while 61% of the growth in video ad spending can be attributed to Democrats.
NANCY PELOSI TAKES SIDES in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary, endorsing Rep. Joe Kennedy III over Sen. Ed Markey. The race has scrambled the usual progressive-moderate battle lines in the party, with Progressive Caucus members like Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Mark Pocan and Raul Grijalva endorsing Kennedy along with moderates like Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Markey has arranged an unusual coalition featuring the center-left Boston Globe editorial page, along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a stable full of Bernie Sanders-aligned organizations, like Our Revolution and the Sunrise Movement.
LET’S VOTE ALREADY: Interest in the election has reached record highs, according to the latest WSJ/NBC News poll, with 79% of voters describing their interest level in the election at a “9/10” or higher, up 2 points from July. At similar points in 2008 and 2012, those numbers were 72% and 68%, respectively. The previous high point in recent elections for summer enthusiasm was 73% in 2004, with an embattled Republican president trying to win a second term, which he did.
REPUBLICANS WERE FEATURED HEAVILY at the Democratic Convention, as Biden tried to make the case for a big-tent approach with testimonials from former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and others. No Democrats have yet been announced as speakers at the Republican convention next week, though there have been discussions about including some. One notorious “Trumpocrat” will be doing his part from the sidelines, though: former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, pardoned by Trump earlier this year, will host a fundraiser and watch party for a GOP state Senate candidate during Trump’s acceptance speech at a dinner in St. Charles, Ill. Tickets start at $150.
MINOR MEMOS: Amid Postal Service controversy, retired Sen. Orrin Hatch pays homage to his favorite postal worker: Utah Jazz Hall of Famer Karl “The Mailman” Malone.… Surplus of signed merchandise? Trump campaign offers $10 off Trump-signed photos.… Sen. Elizabeth Warren plants “Easter eggs” behind her during DNC speech broadcast from a classroom, including blocks spelling out “BLM,” tributes to Massachusetts authors and companies, and a child-size postal worker smock.
Write to Gabriel T. Rubin at gabriel.rubin@wsj.com
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