By Laurence D. Schiller 
Bob Dold has a problem. In a district that voted for Barack Obama twice, he has to appear to be independent and moderate. Yet he also depends on right-wing PACs and conservative Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to help fill his campaign coffers. Dold’s dilemma became worse when Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee for President after winning the majority of votes in the 10th District’s Republican primary and the endorsement of Speaker Ryan. How to appeal to independents, who reject Trump’s racist, misogynist, and downright dangerous policies, while keeping the Trump voters in his camp and Republican PAC money flowing in?
Dold’s solution? Create an illusion. Talk like a moderate while fully supporting the right-wing Republican agenda.
An analysis of Dold’s votes on key bills by the nonpartisan VoteSmart.org shows that on over 40 key votes during his tenure in Congress, Dold has voted against the values he claims he holds in common with the 10th District. And every one of these key roll calls broke down essentially on party lines, with the self-styled independent Dold voting with his fellow Republicans.
This month, we focus on what Dold has and hasn’t done in Congress to protect our planet. Here are some of his votes:
- Dold opposed Clean Water Act regulation.
Dold voted for SJ Res 22 (January 2016) which sought to overturn President Obama’s expansion of the authority of the EPA and Corps of Engineers after the Flint water disaster. In other words, Dold opposed strengthening the EPA’s ability to protect other communities’ water supplies from the kind of pollution that has exposed Flint’s residents to toxic levels of lead in their water. The bill was sponsored in the House by Tea Party darling Joni Ernst (R-IA). President Obama vetoed it on January 20.
- Dold has aligned himself with Republican climate change deniers.
In June 2016, Dold voted with every other Republican in the House in favor of a resolution stating opposition to a carbon tax, thereby aligning himself with vocal climate-change deniers in his party like Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), who sponsored the resolution. During his first term, in 2011, Dold also voted along with his party’s climate-change deniers to bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. (Energy Tax Prevention Act; H.R. 910; vote number 11-HV249, Apr 7, 2011).
In January 2015, Dold voted to approve the environmentally dangerous Keystone XL pipeline (HR 3, January 2015). Notably, then-Congressman Brad Schneider voted against approval when a similar bill came to a vote in May 2013.
In 2010, Dold signed the so-called No Climate Tax Pledge sponsored by the right-wing Institute for Liberty Americans for Prosperity (AFP).
In May of 2011, Dold voted to repeal President Obama’s ban against drilling for oil in the continental shelf in another straight party-line vote.
- Preservation of National Forests
In October 2011, Dold voted for a land exchange where valuable Arizona national forest lands were given to Resolution Copper Company for exploitation (HR 1904, October 2011).
In July 2015, Dold voted to make it harder to mount environmental challenges to projects, such as logging, in national forests (H.R. 2647, July 2015).
In a statement, the White House “strongly opposed” the bill Dold supported and said it would “undermine collaborative forest restoration, environmental safeguards, and public participation across the National Forest System and public lands.”
- Protection of waterways and endangered species
In February 2012, Dold voted to stop environmental restoration efforts in the San Joaquin Valley, including overriding the Endangered Species Act and ending the reintroduction of salmon (H.R. 1837, February 2012).
We could go on, but our point should be clear. Bob Dold is no friend of the environment. No wonder Brad Schneider has earned the endorsement of the Sierra Club.
Bob Dold is clearly NOT the environment-friendly moderate he claims to be as, again and again, he follows the party line on key environmental votes. Dold does NOT represent the values of the 10th Congressional District. Time to elect Brad Schneider, who does.