Maddox fires at Putnam over conservation scorecard

Democrat Scott Maddox on Monday used the release of an environmental scorecard of Congressional representatives to fire a shot at the likely Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, in the agriculture commissioner race.

The League of Conservation Voters rated all members of Congress based on their votes on issues including energy, global warming, environmental health and safety protections, public lands and wildlife conservation and spending for environmental programs.

Putnam voted with the League 14 percent of the time, according to the scorecard (http://lcv.org/scorecard/). That was better than six other Florida representatives who scored less than 10 percent, but his record was worse than or equal to 18 other representatives.

Maddox, in a campaign statement, said the Cabinet post ensures "the food we put on our dinner table is suitable for consumption."

Then, firing at Putnam, he said, "You already know about his anti-Florida/anti-jobs position on oil drilling, but you probably didn't know that Putnam sided with corporate polluters and other special interests 86 percent of the time -- worse than eight other Republicans!"

There was no response statement issued by Putnam and a call to his campaign office was not returned. Putnam does not face Republican opposition.

Maddox faces three other challengers -- Thaddeus "Thad" Hamilton, Randy Hatch and O.R. "Rick" Minton Jr. in the Democratic primary.

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.)