In 1996 political novice Brian Baird came tantalizingly close
-887 votes out of 245,000 cast-to ousting Linda Smith, the ultraconservative
Republican representative from southwest Washington State. (He was actually
declared the winner on election night, before write-in ballots were tallied.)
Now, with Smith vacating her House seat to run for Senate against Patty Murray, a
better-known, more seasoned Baird is trying again to bring environmental balance
not just to Washington State, but to Washington, D.C.
Baird's commitment to the Pacific Northwest's environment can be traced at least
to the 1970s, when he chaired the Sierra Club's local Tatoosh Group. An outdoors
enthusiast and a psychology professor at Pacific Lutheran University, he is
certain to be a much-needed force for reason in this lushly forested district,
which ranges from the Pacific Ocean to the Cascade Mountains. Asked by local
Sierra Club activists to name his "greatest environmental achievement," he cited
his successful coalition-building with labor groups to block a copper smelter in
Tacoma and his knack for framing environmental issues "in a positive way."
Besides the Club's endorsement, those talents have earned him the backing of
other conservationists as well as timber-industry workers.
"We have got to work together to preserve the environment while we support jobs
in timber, fishing, and other resource-based industries," Baird has said. As a
congressman, his legislative priorities would include safeguarding Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and southern Utah's redrock wilderness. While he
takes a "moderate" approach to forest issues, he's a strong proponent of
mining-law reform and endangered species protection, including Washington's
at-risk salmon population. He favors more environmentally sensitive management of
dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers, and removal of dams along the Elwha, near
Olympic National Park.
After coming so close in 1996, Baird stands an excellent chance of reaching
Capitol Hill this time around. His likely Republican opponent, Pat Fiske, was
Smith's 1994 campaign manager and later her chief of staff. Whoever ends up on
the GOP ticket, though, the choice for environmentalists in November couldn't be
clearer.
