After the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act in June, well-funded opposition groups went on the attack against members who voted for it.\u00a0 In addition to negative TV ads, there was lots of well-publicized screaming at town hall meetings.\u00a0 The conventional wisdom was that supporting the clean energy bill was a politically perilous move.<\/p>\n
We decided to find out if that was true, and asked Hart Research to conduct some polls.<\/p>\n
We picked three members of Congress who voted for the bill and would, according to the theory, be most likely to be hurt by the vote:\u00a0 Rep. Heath Shuler,\u00a0 a conservative “Blue Dog” from North Carolina; Rep. Baron Hill, a coal state moderate from southern Indiana; and Rep. Tom Perriello of Virginia, a freshman member who had the closest race in the nation in 2008.\u00a0 All three are from districts won by John McCain.<\/p>\n
The results?<\/p>\n