By Susan Holmes, Government Director
Pete McCloskey, a Republican member of Congress, co-author of the Endangered Species Act, longtime Endangered Species Coalition supporter, and member of our Advisory Board, handed away on Might eighth on the age of 94.
A liberal Republican who represented an space south of San Francisco for fifteen years, Pete rose to nationwide prominence in 1969 as an opponent of the Vietnam Conflict. Daring and visionary, the next yr, he co-authored the Endangered Species Act (Rep. Dingell was lead and Chairman of the Home Subcommittee on Fish and Wildlife; Pete was the Rating member) and co-founded Earth Day. Throughout his time in Congress he was a champion for a lot of robust environmental legal guidelines, together with the Clear Air and Clear Water Acts.
However what I like most about Pete is that he made defending the surroundings and endangered species a profitable political difficulty. In his first race – a particular major in opposition to the childhood actor Shirley Temple Black – Pete gained by mobilizing younger voters in assist of open house safety and the surroundings.
I first met Pete when he got here out of retirement in 2006 to run a marketing campaign to unseat Consultant Richard Pombo, Chair of the Home Pure Assets Committee. Pombo had pledged to weaken the ESA and we knew that if he returned to Congress wildlife protections have been on the chopping block. Though Pete misplaced the first problem to Pombo, he succeeded in profitable 32% of the vote on a conservation platform. He went on to endorse Consultant Jerry McNerney, a Democrat, who then defeated Pombo. The Sierra Membership acknowledged Pete in 2006 for his work to unseat Pombo with their highest honor for public officers, the Edgar Wayburn Award.
Pete McCloskey wrote for the fortieth Anniversary of the ESA, “…I take into account co-authorship of the Endangered Species Act as the best contribution I’ve made in my lifetime to the welfare of this nation.” Thanks Pete! Endangered species, from alligators to whooping cranes, and all of us are so grateful in your life and legacy!
