-- By Dan Rivoli

Polls generally show that voters rank the environment low among their driving concerns. But as Democrats and Republicans in New York angle for control of the State Senate and several House seats, candidates may try using the environment as a wedge, particularly when they can expand the environmental agenda to include issues not normally associated with conservation.

Marcia Bystryn, executive director of the New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV), said that candidates have to show that environmentalism goes beyond natural resources. Changing the discourse on environmentalism, she said, will allow Republicans to enter the debate on a set of issues traditionally dominated by Democrats.

“If you define it broadly, there’s going to be Democrats and Republicans running on environmental issues,” she said.

The NYLCV concluded from its 2007 legislative session progress report that New York State needed to improve in the areas of smart growth, energy planning and environmental justice—areas that transcend conservation, Bystryn said.

As an example of how conservation issues can be framed differently, Bystryn pointed to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Unaffil.), who has discussed the environment in the context of sustainability and growth issues to get business groups and environmentalists interested in the same goals. If they employ a similar strategy in the race against State Sen. Serphin Maltese (R), Bystryn believes, Democrats may be able to pick up that seat.

“You have to link it to economic development to get everyone on board,” Bystryn said.

In upstate New York, the clean-up of formerly industrial, contaminated parcels of land, known as brownfields, is an environmental issue that touches on economic development. For a region in need of jobs and growth, cleaning up brownfields will likely be a campaign issue in cities like Rome, parts of which are represented by State Sen. David Valesky (D-Madison/Oneida), Bystryn said. The district is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

“When you frame those issues in the sustainability context, that resonates with anyone,” Bystryn said.

Evan Stavisky, a partner at the Parkside Group with a history of environmental consulting, said politicians could change the discourse around conservation. “If a candidate can make a compelling argument on how they’ll use their office to affect the environment,” he said, “they’ll be successful in injecting environmentalism into the debate.”

Adding environmentalism into the public debate, however, is not enough to tip an election one way or another, Stavisky said. Local issues will trump green issues. “Green building is an abstract concept, whereas Wal-Mart is a very real issue,” Stavisky said. “That’s the most immediate environmental issue facing voters in the swing districts.”

Many of the swing districts in the state are suburban in nature, where overdevelopment and carbon emissions from motorists are of concern. “Unchecked building development and sprawl—that’s what environmentalists will mobilize around,” Stavisky said.

Political consultant Norman Adler said that the added emphasis on the environment could be a boon for Republicans preparing to run what are expected to be competitive races in Long Island and upstate New York. He pointed to one of his clients, State Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Suffolk), who chairs the Environmental Conservation Committee. Adler said that, as an environmentally conscious Republican, Marcellino has gained popularity with unaffiliated and Democratic voters who might not otherwise agree with him but share his concern with the environment.

“Voters expect Democrats to be good on environmental issues,” Adler explained.

But Adler said that environmental issues barely registered on the polling he conducted. “It was so small in the poll, it was irrelevant,” he said.

Much of this, Adler believes, is because voters do not see the local resonance of green issues.

“Environmentalism is kind of a sleeper issue,” Adler said. “People see environmentalism as a national issue.”

Even conservation issues special to a region, like ensuring clean drinking water in Suffolk County, have gone away, Adler said. In the swing district this election year, he expects the basic traditional issues to be the ones which decide the winners.

“How do you use it as a campaign issue? ‘The incumbent isn’t using green light bulbs in his lamp.’?” Adler asked, joking about one slogan. “If I’m running on Long Island, I’m talking about taxes and housing.”