The League of Conservation Voters, which had been running ads attacking Republican Sen. Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race, released this statement Monday on the new pact by the two candidates to keep out third-party spending in the race:
“Since the disastrous Citizens United decision two years ago, there has been an unprecedented flood of corporate special interest money into the political process, much of it from oil companies and other polluters.
While we cannot take directions from any candidate on our independent activities, we are inclined to respect the People’s Pledge agreed to by Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown and we hope that Scott Brown will honor his end of the deal when Crossroads and the Koch Brothers inevitably break it.
LCV has a 40 year history of lobbying Congress to pass pro-environmental legislation, working to hold members of Congress accountable for their votes, and electing pro-environment leaders. This history sets us apart from the secretive oil billionaires that have tried to hijack our political process. But we know that the only thing oil companies have going for them are their deep pockets, so if this agreement will help sideline them, we welcome it.”
The Brown-Warren pact involves discouraging outside groups from coming in, by each campaign pledging to donate from its own account to a charity of the other’s choosing, an amount equal to 50% of the ad buy of a third-party group that either supports that candidate or attacks the opponent.
