Landrieu eyed in anti-Keystone campaign

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is launching a new campaign against proponents of Keystone XL, and one possible target is Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.).

Steyer’s green group NextGen Climate Action posted a list of candidates who are strong advocates of the controversial TransCanada oil pipeline on its website, asking people to pick which one it should target for its Keystone XL television ad.

{mosads}NextGen Climate Action is lining up Landrieu, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Reps. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Paul Broun (R-Ga.) as potential targets. Also on the list is former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, who is running for Senate this year. Rounds is hoping to replace retiring Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.). 

One of the five lawmakers will be the focus of Steyer’s next Keystone XL ad. If it’s Landrieu, it might not bode well for the vulnerable Democrat.

“These are a sample of lawmakers misled by tar sands lobbyists about “energy from a trusted ally,” said Mike Casey, a consultant for NextGen Climate Action, in a statement on Wednesday.

“We assume they don’t want to be taken for a bunch of suckers, and they will want not just the facts about Chinese government investment, but an opportunity to ask the important questions of the State Department and TransCanada that have yet to be asked and that are vital for the public to know,” Casey said.

Casey said NextGen Climate Action is leaving it up to its online community of several hundred thousand to select the candidate. The ad will then run in the lawmaker’s home state.

The likelihood of Democrats keeping a majority in the Senate is already in question. Were Steyer’s action group to target Landrieu and fellow vulnerable Democrats like Sen. Mark Begich (Alaska) and Mark Pryor (Ark.) — who both support building Keystone XL — Republicans could take control of the Senate come November.

In an interview with Steyer late last year, The Hill asked him if NextGen planned to throw its growing political muscle into 2014 races.

“We will be working on a bunch of races in 2014,” Steyer said, but wouldn’t say which races.