Jeffords Exit a Loss for GOP, REP America Says

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For Immediate Release

Jeffords Exit a Loss for GOP, REP America Says

WASHINGTON, SEATTLE, May. 24 -/E-Wire/-- Senator Jim Jeffords' decision to leave the Republican Party is a "terrible loss forthe GOP," said Jim Scarantino, executive

director of REP America, the national grassroots organization of Republicans for

environmental protection.

"We have lost one of our party's great conservation champions," Scarantino said. "Time and time again, Jim Jeffords has stood firm for protecting public health, quality of life and our natural heritage. He never forgot that we are the party of

Theodore Roosevelt."

Jeffords was honored last year with REP America's biennial John Chafee Memorial Environmental Legislator of the Year Award. (See www.repamerica.org and click on "Awards.")

Scarantino said the fault for Jeffords' departure lies squarely with the party's leadership. "This ought to be a wakeup call to President Bush and the Republican leadership. They are abandoning many traditional Republican values. On environmental

issues, the leadership has pursued shortsighted, often extreme legislative agendas

that are completely out of touch with the wishes of mainstream Americans. They are

making it hard for other life-long Republicans to stay in the party," he said.

"While we can understand Senator Jeffords' decision, we, on the other hand, will stay

where we are and fight within the GOP to turn it around and get it back to its

conservation traditions. But if President Bush and the GOP leadership don't listen to

the many voices that have given the GOP political power, other Republicans of

principle and conscience may follow Senator Jeffords' example," Scarantino said.

Scarantino predicted that Jeffords' decision will strengthen the hand of pro-conservation Republicans in Congress, especially in the House, where they hold

the balance of power. "Like Jim Jeffords, they know that conservation is conservative.

They have stood firm, even in the face of shabby treatment by party leaders. Now, they

are in a stronger position to protect the environmental laws and policies that are

supported by the vast majority of Americans, regardless of political affiliation," Scarantino said.

http://www.repamerica.org

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