Senator Tom Reynolds (R-West Allis) has struggled mightily to win the hearts and minds of outdoorsmen and failed miserably in the process.  He has sold his soul to special interests on matters of piers, clean air and water, deer management and endangered species.  Reynolds actions have been contemptuous of past GOP leaders who fought to save our natural treasures and enacted the environmental-protection laws taken for granted today.

Theodore Roosevelt created our unparalleled collection of wildlife refuges and national parks.  It was Republican administrations that signed into law the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and established the Environmental Protection Agency and created the Conservation Reserve Program.

To paraphrase the mission statement of Republicans for Environmental Protection: 

Nothing is more conservative than conservation. True conservatives safeguard the resources on which the health, recreation, and economic prosperity of present and future Americans depend. There is nothing conservative, and certainly nothing wise, in squandering our wildlife, wilderness, wetlands, and other natural treasures.

Regrettably, Senator Reynolds has never come close to meeting that standard.  Reynolds has made evident his contempt for science and demonstrated that he would dismantle these protections at every opportunity.  He is not some sort of “Libertarian Conservative” as his supporters would portray him.  Rather, he is an obsessive, extremist ideologue with a very narrow personal agenda.   He has proven himself callously indifferent to his rather sizeable constituency who value wildlife, outdoor recreation and natural resources.