We recently posted a press release from The Virginia League of Conservation Voters, announcing some of its political endorsements in this pre-primary campaign season. (The motto of VALCV is "Preserving Virginia'a natural landscape by changing Virginia's political landscape")

The release goes on to summarize the vetting process. It made us want to know a little more about how they came to make their endorsement in the 57th, so we spoke by telephone with Lisa Guthrie, the Executive Director of the League.

Laughing, Ms Guthrie observed that one thing about the interviews with the three Charlottesville-area candidates was highly unusual. "They're all strong on our issues. Believe me, this is rare in Virginia."

She tells us that, for people with a public record on environmental issues, the endorsement process really starts with the VALCV Scorecard where votes or positions taken on specific legislation is tracked. (Mitch Van Yahres, last year, scored 75 out of a possible 100.)

As is outlined in the press release, the organization sends a questionnaire to each candidate, covering positions on issues related to water and air qualilty, land use, etc. "Not all of them even bother to return the questionnaire--they know they're not going to get our endorsement," says Guthrie. "Then we schedule personal interviews. We have a team that includes people from our board as well as [environmental] activists. They go over issues raised by answers to the questionnaire."

We mentioned Rich Collins' national stature on environmental issues and negotiation. Is it not odd that he was not the choice of an organization like hers? Ms Guthrie acknowledged that, but said, "Well, then we review the campaigns.

"Viability is a very important constituent in making our decisions. We look at [success in] fundraising. We look at [previous] endorsements. We assess the person. We want to endorse someone who can get elected.

"So in looking at all these things, we feel that David Toscano is a well-rounded candidate with a proven ability to reach out to other constituencies, to the business community [for example], and not work in isolation. We feel he will be able to build coalitions, which is critical [for a progressive] in the General Assembly.

"So he got our endorsement." (Dave Sagarin, May 25, 2005)