Sierra Club California condemns Chamber-led PAC’s unapproved use of logo

By Allen Payton

A political action committee, JobsPAC, co-chaired by the California Chamber of Commerce, has mailed campaign literature to voters in special State Senate District 7 election, that prominently displays the Sierra Club logo.

The SD 7 race will fill the State Senate seat vacated by Mark DeSaulnier following his election to Congress in November, midway through his term.

Sierra Club California Director Kathryn Phillips released a statement regarding the logo.

The mailer from JobsPAC to Senate District 7 voters is deceptive,” she said. “It implies that Sierra Club has endorsed one of the candidates for the Senate District 7 seat. In fact, Sierra Club has not endorsed any candidate in that race. The irony is that one of the long-time barriers to environmental policy progress, the California Chamber of Commerce, has used the Club’s logo on its JobsPAC mailing to try to win votes for its favored candidate. Is this the start of a trend? Has the Chamber decided environmental groups are correct after all? Can we now expect the California Chamber to actually support good environmental legislation?”

I doubt it. But hope springs eternal,” Phillips added.

Sierra Club California is the legislative and regulatory advocacy arm of the Sierra Club’s 13 chapters and more than 150,000 members in California.

In response, Martin Wilson, Executive Vice President, Public Affairs for JobsPAC offered the following statement:

The mailer’s intention is to make it clear that Susan Bonilla is a typical politician who says one thing and then does the opposite. In this case, during the 2012 legislative session, Bonilla sided with the NRA against the Sierra Club and other environmental and animal rights groups who wanted to ban lead ammunition. Mrs. Bonilla was present and voting that day but when it came to voting for the environment she was AWOL.”


One Comment to “Sierra Club California condemns Chamber-led PAC’s unapproved use of logo”

  1. Arne says:

    Sour grapes lol

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