Schipske Dubs Opponent 'Dana Pointless' After His Vote on Off-Shore Drilling



Describing her Republican opponent, Dana Rohrabacher, as “once again out of sync with the rest of right thinking people”, Gerrie Schipske, Democratic nominee today charged that Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has ignored the environmental concerns of his Southern California District by voting against a measure that bans the use of any federal funds to allow drilling activity on 36 undeveloped gas and oil leases off the shore of California.

Dana’s continual disregard for California’s environment should raise the question in every voter’s mind: what is the point of his representing a coastal district when in fact he doesn_t seem to care what happens to it? Schipske asked. “Looking at his environmental record”, quipped Schipske, “I think it is safe to start referring to him as ‘Dana Pointless.’”

On a 252-172 vote, the House of Representatives approved an amendment to the Interior Department’s appropriation bill offered by California Congresswoman Lois Capps that places a year’s ban on off-shore drilling in hopes that the Bush Administration would purchase the gas and oil leases as it did in Florida.

Schipske, a Registered Nurse Practitioner and health care and labor attorney, notes that Rohrabacher, who has served in Congress since 1988 and brags about being an avid surfer, has a “long string of environmentally toxic votes”, says Schipske. “Rohrabacher’s votes against increasing vehicle mileage standards and incentives for alternative fuels and his referring to the warnings about global warming as ‘liberal claptrap’ clearly illustrate his lack of understanding and concern about the links between a clean environment and healthy people”.

Schipske faces Rohrabacher in the November 5 election for the newly drawn 46th Congressional District in southern California. The 46th includes the coastal cities of Huntington Beach, Surfside, Sunset Beach, Seal Beach, Long Beach, Catalina Island, San Pedro and Palos Verdes Estates.