Maryland’s two U.S. senators racked up perfect scores in an environmental report card examining congressional votes in 2018.
U.S. Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) and Chris Van Hollen (D) each scored 100 percent on the League of Conservation Voters annual scorecard, which was released Wednesday. The scores were based on 14 votes in the Senate and 35 votes in the House of Representatives.
“As the Trump administration continued their assault on our most important environmental protections, both Senators Van Hollen and Cardin stood up for Maryland’s air, water, land, and water,” Maryland LCV Executive Director Karla Raettig said in a statement. “We are proud to have representatives in Congress who fight for Maryland’s communities. And we will continue to build our clean energy future.”
Seven of Maryland’s eight House members also scored well in the LCV report. The exception was the delegation’s lone Republican, Rep. Andrew P. Harris, who got a 3 percent LCV rating.
Among Maryland’s seven House Democrats, the scores went from 97 percent (Rep. Jamie Raskin) to 94 percent (Reps. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and John P. Sarbanes) to 91 percent (ex-Rep. John K. Delaney) to 89 percent (Rep. Elijah E. Cummings) to 83 percent (Rep. Anthony G. Brown) to 63 percent (Rep. Steny H. Hoyer).
Hoyer’s score was low mainly because he missed several key votes for health reasons, LCV reported.
The 2018 National Environmental Scorecard reveals that Republicans had an average score of 8 percent in both chambers of Congress. In stark contrast, Senate Democrats and the Independents who caucus with them earned an average score of 95 percent, and House Democrats rang up an average score of 90 percent.
LCV officials are expecting better things from the House now that it has shifted to Democratic control.
“After eight years of the most anti-environmental U.S. House ever and two years of relentless attacks on the environment from the Trump administration, the tectonic shift to a pro-environment majority in the people’s House comes not a moment too soon,” said LCV Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld.
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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