Johnson a genuine environmentalist

February 15, 2006

Recently, Cameron Satterthwaite conjured up an imaginary story of Congressman Tim Johnson in a vote-trading meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney and Congressman Tom DeLay. The upshot of this fabrication is that Johnson is trying to appease the local "tree huggers" and that he is not genuine in his concern for the environment.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In 1970, when Tim Johnson was on the Urbana City Council, he was outspoken in favor of saving Allerton Park and later announced that he wanted to be the environmental legislator as he began his long and successful career as a state representative. He was voted by the Illinois Environmental Council the top environmental representative of the year on at least two occasions. He was always effective and responsive to environmental issues over his 30 years as state representative and now as congressman. The Sierra Club and the Prairie Rivers Network have recently congratulated him publicly for his votes on the environment.

Nor is the congressman a captive of the White House, having voted with the Bush administration only about half of the time last year. He is actually a very independent congressman.

Satterthwaite used his letter to disparage the congressman and urged us to vote for his challenger in the upcoming election. I know his challenger and suspect that he must be embarrassed by this tactic used on his behalf.

BRUCE HANNON
Champaign