CSE Representatives Deliver Norton Support Letters to U.S. Capitol on Inauguration Eve

CSE Activists Take the Lead in Supporting Gale Norton for Secretary of the Interior. On January 6, 2001, more than 1,200 activists from Northern California and Southern Oregon gathered in Medford to support the confirmation of Secretary of the Interior nominee Gale Norton. Oregon CSE collected over 600 signed cards urging Senators Smith and Wyden to help confirm Norton.

CSE Representatives Deliver Norton Support Letters to U.S. Capitol on Inauguration Eve. On January 19, 2001, Oregon CSE Director Russ Walker and CSE Environmental Policy Director Patrick Burns presented Senator Gordon Smith with the postcards signed by Oregon CSE members showing their support for Interior nominee Gale Norton. According to Senator Smith, a long-time supporter of property rights, “she’s got my vote.” The support letters addressed to Senator Ron Wyden were also delivered. While Senator Wyden has not taken a formal position on the Norton confirmation, has been critical of some of the positions taken by Ms. Norton on property rights and energy policy during the senate confirmation hearings.

Oregon CSE Director Russ Walker and CSE
Environmental Policy Director Patrick Burns present
Senator Gordon Smith with hundreds of postcards
signed by Oregonians showing their support for
Secretary of the Interior nominee Gale Norton.

CSE Web Site an Important Conduit for Grassroots Support of Gale Norton. As the second day of Ms. Norton’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee came to a close, over 1,200 CSE members continued voicing their support for Norton via our exclusive web-based service, CapitolConnectâ„¢. A legislative activation tool, CapitolConnectâ„¢ provides CSE members with a convenient way to contact their elected officials about the issues that concern them and their families.

Oregon CSE Director Lauds Norton’s Common-Sense Record on Environmental Stewardship. “Gale Norton has taken innovative approaches to environmental stewardship and land management. She also is a strong advocate of individual freedom, property rights, and local decision making — all of which have been lacking in Washington, D.C. for the past eight years. The groups criticizing Gale Norton as somehow being outside the mainstream demonstrate nothing more than how far removed from reason and compromise they have become. This is exactly the type of politics Americans have seen enough of. If Americans are going to successfully meet our environmental challenges, government is going to have to start working with citizens more closely, and listening to them. There is no reason for the Senate not to swiftly confirm her nomination.”