The campaign arm for House Republicans is attacking the Democratic candidate in a competitive race on the southern tip of Florida for allegedly being allied with coal and insufficiently devoted to combating climate change.
In a surprising twist, the National Republican Congressional Committee is running an advertisement alleging that Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, running to represent Florida’s 26th District, is beholden to “dirty coal money” and not pure in her commitment to limiting global warming.
Florida’s 26th District spans from south Miami to the Florida Keys, an area especially vulnerable to sea level rise and flooding.
The NRCC’s ad says Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign is “flooded with dirty coal money, the very polluters that threaten our way of life in the Keys.”
The narration occurs over a visual of a CNN article with the headline: “The Florida Keys … at risk … as a result of climate change.”
Republicans traditionally devote little attention to climate change, and many are skeptical of government action to address it.
But the NRCC, in running the ad, is recognizing the realities on the ground facing Florida’s 26th District, which is currently represented by Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a moderate Republican who co-chairs the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus.
“Every ad we run is district specific,” Maddie Anderson, the NRCC’s southern and central regional press secretary, told the Washington Examiner. “Generally, though, we call out hypocrisy. If Debbie wants to make protecting the environment a key issue in her campaign, she should probably ensure her lifestyle isn’t financed by anti-environmental interests.”
Curbelo, facing re-election in the bluest of Republican-incumbent districts, is staking his political future on addressing climate change, introducing a carbon tax bill a few months ago.
Curbelo’s staff could not directly address the NRCC’s ad because of campaign rules, but expressed support for the spirit of its message.
“Throughout this entire campaign, Rep. Curbelo’s opponent has shown insincerity on issue after issue,” Joanna Rodriguez, a Curbelo spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner. “Realistically, it’s only a matter of time before she caves on the issue of climate change as well.”
Critics questioned the accuracy of the NRCC ad. Asked for specific evidence of Mucarsel-Powell’s ties to coal, Anderson, the NRCC spokeswoman, referred to a hedge fund that billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer founded years ago that invested in coal mines and power plants.
Anderson said Steyer has donated $2,700 to Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign. But Steyer is no longer affiliated with the hedge fund, Farallon Capital Management, and he is one of the leading progressives calling for ending the use of fossil fuels.
Anderson also cited a company tied to Mucarsel-Powell’s husband, Robert, that she says produces iron and steel and imports coal.
The Mucarsel-Powell campaign did not provide an on-the-record comment in response to an inquiry regarding those allegations.
Mucarsel-Powell, a former associate dean at Florida International University, has criticized Curbelo’s credentials on combating climate change, attacking him for his vote last year to approve the GOP tax bill that opened a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling.
That vote has drawn the ire of some environmental groups, although others, like the advocacy arm of the Environmental Defense Fund, support Curbelo.
“We only wish the ad had noted how much Carlos Curbelo has taken from Big Oil,” R. L. Miller of the voter mobilization group Climate Hawks Vote told the Washington Examiner.
Curbelo has countered that Mucarsel-Powell is offering few specifics about her plans to mitigate climate change. He argues that he is uniquely positioned as a moderate Republican to achieve policies that could attract the support of both parties during the era of the Trump administration.
“It’s easy to attack other people’s positions when you really have no initiatives or proposals of your own. I haven’t seen anything from her,” Curbelo told the Washington Examiner in an interview during a visit to Florida’s 26th District in September.
Asked to provide policy proposals, Mucarsel-Powell told the Washington Examiner in September that she would move to “end our dependence on fossil fuels” and support Florida obtaining 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources.
