League of Conservation Voters Endorses Husband of Teresa Heinz Kerry

Capital Research Center ^ | John K. Carlisle

[anniegetyourgun]

Q: What Ties Philanthropy to Politics?

A: Marriage and Money

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is an environmental activist group which seeks to influence legislation and support political candidates who favor its positions on the environment. On January 24 LCV endorsed John Kerry for the presidency. While it’s hardly a surprise that the liberal LCV would endorse Senator Kerry, the early timing of the endorsement raises certain questions.

In 2000, the LCV waited until April to endorse Vice President Gore, a candidate whose advocacy for LCV’s positions on environmental issues is much stronger than Kerry’s. Why did LCV jump so early on the Kerry bandwagon?

A clue may be found in grants the Heinz Endowments of Pittsburgh made to environmental groups whose leaders sit on the LCV board of directors. Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Senator Kerry, is chairman of the Howard Heinz Endowment (HHE) and a board member of the Vira I. Heinz Endowment (VHE) as well as chairman of the Heinz Family Foundation. The LCV Education Fund received $10,000 from the Heinz Family Foundation in 2001. More importantly, at least four members of the LCV board of directors lead environmental groups that received more than $1,000,000 from the Heinz philanthropies in the past three years.

What follows are the organizations receiving Heinz Endowments grants whose leaders sit on the LCV board.

Natural Resources Defense Council – John Adams, president of NRDC

2003 -- $50,000 to address environmental hazards in Greene County, PA (VHE)

Wilderness Society – William Meadows III, president of WS

2003 -- $50,000 to promote certified wood products in Pennsylvania (VHE)

Environmental Defense – Fred Krupp, president of ED

2003 -- $200,000 for Conestoga Watershed Project (HHE) 2002 -- $200,000 for water pollutant trading (HHE) 2001 -- $200,000 Pennsylvania [Watershed] Project (VHE) 2001 -- $1,000 from Heinz Family Foundation

West Harlem Environmental Action – Peggy M. Shepard, Exec. Dir. of WHEA

2003 -- $250,000 recipient of the 10th Annual Heinz Award

League of Conservation Voters 2001 -- $10,000 – Heinz Family Foundation (General Operating Support)

[the Real fifi]

Check Actvist Cash--I wouldn't be surprized to learn she had contributed to this group--either directly or via that far left Tides Foundation.

[lilylangtree]

Below is an excerpt from an article posted on FR entitled "Teresa Heinz Kerry: Bag Lady for the Radical Left" Teresa Heinz Kerry has financed the secretive Tides Foundation www.tidesfoundation.org/index_tf.cfm to the tune of more than $4 million over the years. The Tides Foundation, a “charity” established in 1976 by antiwar leftist activist Drummond Pike, distributes millions of dollars in grants every year to political organizations advocating far-Left causes. The Tides Foundation and its closely allied Tides Center, which was spun off from the Foundation in 1996 but run by Drummond Pike, distributed nearly $66 million in grants in 2002 alone. In all, Tides has distributed more than $300 million for the Left. These funds went to rabid antiwar demonstrators, anti-trade demonstrators, domestic Islamist organizations, pro-terrorists legal groups, environmentalists, abortion partisans, extremist homosexual activists and open borders advocates.